Hellspawn
by 24aWay
Summary: "Because in his mind, heart and soul, he felt that without Yukio there wasn't Rin. If one of them were going to fall, then the other would do too" [written as bunch of one-shots with future RinYukio; Rin/Yukio; okumuracest; post!anime au]
1. Arc0 End ch1

Title: **Hellspawn**  
Chapter: **1/?**  
Characters: **Rin, Shura, Yukio**  
Genre: **Drama, Angst(?)**  
Summary: **_"Nothing did scare him like what she said."_ **  
Disclaimer: **I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.**

**Warning**: Anime!ver, probably OOCness, a lick of one sided _RinYukio_ if you squint. Fic as seen on my tumblr, be aware x3

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A steady, quiet rumble sounded outside Old Male Dormitory situated in True Cross Academy. The sky was dark and weather only seemed to be getting worse with each passing minute.

On that particular chilly spring night, Rin Okumura slept silently, completely lost to the world; unknowing that his beauty time was going to be cut short pretty soon.

As it happened, young esquire mumbled something under his nose scratching at his exposed belly while another – much louder, closer rumble loomed outside. The storm was quickly approaching now. Not only few minutes later lock located in the boys room clicked and the door went ajar hurriedly. A tall, busty woman -badly battered- strode inside with fast, hard steps.

"Okumura..!" she snapped, breathing heavily. She seemed soaked though and through as few droplets were still sliding down her worn-out face. To add to the bizarreness of the situation, she was badly bruised and one could tell that she wasn't happy to wake an young esquire. However without a beat, she reached for a sleeping beauty and shook him up.

On the Rin's side, his heightened senses kicked in just then and his blue eyes flew open, hand reaching towards his Kurikara and ready to strike whomever the person was. Only by her pure, fast reflexes woman wasn't hit on the head by sword's handle.

"Shit, Rin-kun!" the woman snarled, stepping back and glaring towards young male. Through slightly ajar doors a flash came in and surrounded her silhouette. "Calm your tits, it's only me."

Rin now partially awake and still only barely aware of his surroundings, sighed tiredly before taking a look at his companion with a groan. "What are you doing here?" he asked, suddenly realising it's still middle of the night. "What the hell, Shura?!"

Woman -Shura- gnawed her teeth together and huffed. There was a visible cloud of damp anger around her, she clearly wasn't happy to be put in this situation. Ever. "It's not as if I had any choice in the matter, Okumura" she spoke calmly, huffing a bit – her chest moved erratically as if she was still out of breath.

Now glaring Rin could only snap back at his teacher-in-ranks. "Still, it's middle of the night... Yukio's not here, as if anything he should be with...-" At sudden realisation, he perked up, fist clutching his sword in hand. "Damnit, Shura! It's Yukio, isn't it? Something happened to him? Speak!" he demanded, swinging his legs from warm bed. Before Shura answered he stood up, hands clenched at his sides and eyes narrowing dangerously.

Upon that Shura gulped silently, nodding solemnly. "Just hurry, we don't have time to lose."

Her words were delicate, too delicate. Without a second thought, Rin sprang into action. Just barely minute later he's got his school pants, shirt and jacket on, all ready to go. He was putting his Kurikara on his back when Shura – silently – mentioned to him to move. Not before long they both walked through still open door.

The sensations that welcomed them outside were that of a raging thunderstorm. Big, wet drops splattered mercilessly instantly on the top of their heads, soaking them in a just few seconds. Almost ground breaking rumble boomed above them, a quick flash following it.

"What happened?" asked timidly Rin, who stood outside his once-dorm door. He kept his steady gaze on redhead woman while she fiddled with closing it. Only when the lock snapped into a place, she frowned. However even with a darkness surrounding them, he could see deep worry etched on her face.

"It's bad..."

Shura started then steadfastly ahead, head held high, her shoulders tense. There were a very visible bruises on her body – one quite large on her left thigh, going purplish already. All over she looked as if she went through hell and back. Her face was marred with scratches and few smaller bruises, dirty from sweat, rain and sand. Only then Rin understood the seriousness of the state she was in.

"How bad?" he prodded, however he kinda had an idea what's happened.

Shura snapped, fists clenching at sides. Dark cloud seemed to hide her face from the view, not that darkness of the night didn't already. "He lost it, Rin."

It was like a bucket of ice cold water. He shivered and stopped, staring at his companion's silhouette. She kept on walking unwavering, there was however a slight kink when her left leg touched a ground with every step. That was a clear sign of a pain, pain she hid from him.

"We can't get through" she continued, not bothered by his sudden halt in step. "We tried. I tried... It's just not enough."

Shura's words were quiet, way too quiet. In all months -a year really, now- he never heard her speak with such detached tone. It sounded wrong on his ears and this worried him greatly, so he finally took his cue and darted after her. With few fast, squelchy steps he reached her side. By now, he was frowning too, angrily but still.

They walked for a while in complete silence, both looking ahead, thinking. When it became too much for Rin and he turned his face towards his companion, she spoke slowly with bangs hiding her face from the world.

Nothing did scare him like what she said.

"There was a moment... Just for a second I thought... I thought... That it's not Yukio any more."

Suddenly the heavy rain that kept on pouring didn't seem so cold on his skin. Quite the contrary, it felt somehow soothing and alluring to him now because with that one statement he fell into the darkest corners of his mind.

A snippets of that time, from many months before filled his eyes. _The great blue flames, burning. His younger brother consumed by Satan. Yukio's plea... His smile and then... Shot. Red, red blood spilling from his wound. _

Back on earth, Rin found himself staring at Shura with fresh tears burning his eyes, standing limply. That memories, they still burned and still hurt. Even after months of that event. The mixture of his emotions put him on a roller-coaster, he was furious, sad and afraid at the same time.

"What?" he finally snapped, his brows furrowed, his fang glistening in the storm. "You can't say that... that..." He couldn't say it. It couldn't be real. Shura bested him on it though.

"He's possessed by Satan?" There was a mirthless laugh on Shura's side and a very cold chill running down Rin's spine. "No, he's not in his butterfly-mode... Yet."

"How..?" he asked, heart plummeting in his ribcage. It just wasn't possible, was it? They destroyed the Gate, they kicked Satan's ass back to Gehenna. Then how..? "I don't understand" he snarled, still glaring at Shura. She shrugged it off, just like her a bit too long fringe.

"Don't get me wrong here, Okumura" she stated then with hard, cold voice she rarely used, glancing at him. "But you don't know a squat about the things me and scaredy-cat are up to most of the times. I personally think it's better that way, you are still mastering the control over your demonic side..."

Baring his teeth, with tail swinging angrily, Rin grabbed onto Shura's arm and stopped them, glaring at her. Hard. "What's that's supposed to mean? And what is that got to do with Yukio and Satan?!"

Shura barked back, tiredness finally clearly visible on her face. "Listen here... It was just a simple mission. Nothing much, just a clearing of bunch of a rogue demons on the loose" she spoke, almost shaking from anger. Her eyes seemed on fire from all the emotions that swirled in her. "We weren't aware that the Gate was open nearby..."

Rin's eyes went wide, face going slack.

"So as you see, it has everything to do with them. Because frankly only you can get through that brother's of yours thick skull and snap him out..." she thrown into his face, brows furrowed angrily. "I can't even get close to him... He's... gone."

"Don't" Rin warned, tightening his grip on her arm. "He's not. He's just... lost a bit. I'll get him back" he said but his voice betrayed him, being soft and wavering.

Shura smiled bitterly, noticing his slip. "Of course... you need to. You're his other half."

This time, he nodded and let go of her. "Exactly" he stated with fake confidence. "Besides, I saved him once before, didn't I?" he declared, his lips quivering. For once in his life his words sounded so gallantly false even on his own ears. Still, he needed to believe. However if the chance was that Yukio was too lost already... No, he couldn't think such things.

"Yes, that you did" Shura cut Rin's thoughts mid-way, with something akin to reminiscence in her eyes. "I'd really appreciate if you did it again, just so I can beat scaredy-cat's ass myself. Again."

At that Rin cracked a smile. He nodded, but he didn't really want a repeat of the past. "So let's go! Where is he?"

Shura sighed deeply, looking briefly towards sky and then mentioned towards it with a nod. Rin followed her gaze and his eyes widened at the white-ish hue in the horizon. He didn't spot it before, but it was way too bright to be it middle of the night. Another loud rumble cut through the silence, however rain seemed to loose on it's heaviness. In his mind's eye however everything seemed to be sketched in black-and-white, as if the view was torn straightly from artist's book.

After moment of contemplation Shura spoke, sighing tiredly but pointing with her thumb ahead nonetheless.

"Over there, we need to move."

With that she -even in her battered shape- ran ahead into darkness, towards the light in the sky. Dumbfounded a bit, Rn could only shout after her fast moving figure.

"Hey, wait! Wait!"

At first, there was nothing but darkness, hollowness of the place he ran through. All that reached his ears were the sounds of their steps and steady pour of the rain around them. Then there were little things like a quivers of the leafs on the wind, a crack of the tree branch above his head, a squeak of a squirrel darting away in scare.

The place they were in, he couldn't recognize. It still didn't change the fact that he easily reached Shura's side in no time, running along with her through thickness of the woods.

After few long moments, a bright flash and loud crash, there was a visible brightening of the vision before their eyes. They were closing in to the place now. Just as Rin haphazardly tried to jump ahead into clearing he saw they were approaching, Shura grabbed at his black jacket, tugging him to a stop with silent eyes.

"What-?" he asked, demanding answer.

"The Gate is still open" Shura commented, her eyes darting around and then stopping to the west of their position. "We need to close it..."

Rin shrugged her hand off himself. "First we need to get through to Yukio. I won't close his soul in Gehenna nor I want Satan roaming the streets wearing him like some weird onesie."

Shura pondered his words in silence. Single rain drop splattered on her nose and she blinked. "We're screwed..."

That stunned Rin and he retailed instantly, all fired up and ready to take out his sword. "There's two of us, don't be stupid" he snapped, his demonic tail swinging. "I'll go for Yukio, you take care of the Gate, easy."

Upon hearing that Shura almost laughed. Almost. "It's not that easy. How I am supposed to know that you actually managed to bring scaredy-cat back in time?"

Rin blanched, suddenly feeling self-aware of his idea. "Well... Uhm... Ugh..."

Shaking her head tiredly Shura sighed. "We'll give each other ten minutes then. I hope you'll manage in time, because I ain't stopping in closing the Gate."

Rin did what he only could do, he nodded solemnly. "Good, ten minutes is a lot of time. I'll reach him in five."

Shura's eyes hardened at that. "He knocked out our whole team, almost got me" she stated sultry. As a response she got a full-view of a dark tail with a fluff at the end.

"But now, I'm here. I'll bring him back..." Rin smiled confidently, reaching for his sword. Once he had it in his hand, he sobered. "Also I have this, I think I'll be able to stop his flames with it."

"Are you serious?" asked Shura, befuddled.

"Yeah."

"This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard" she concluded, bewildered. "Even coming from you."

"Oy!"

Then she sighed, they didn't had any other way but to try. They could at least give it a shot, what was the worst that could happen, right? "Okay then, Okumura. We'll roll with it."

Rin's face split into a smile. "R-really?" he asked excited, his tail flailing about. One could think it was first time anybody agreed with him on something.

"Yes" she added, wincing a bit. Her left hand reached towards her thigh. "We don't have any other ideas how to put out Yukio's flames anyway."

"Great, let's go then!"

Upon hearing Rin's chippier tone, Shura reached for him but it was a futile thing to do as he wasn't there any more. Growling a bit under breath, she clasped her hands upon her bosom muttering incantation and took out her sword. Without looking back, she ran to the west, where the Gate was located.

Ten minutes.

They had ten minutes.

Hopefully, Yukio would be back by then and Shura will close Gehenna's Gate.

As if anything was that easy.

Well, it never was. Rin strode gallantly into the clearing they've seen, and stopped his mouth hanging open at the sight before him. Oh how astonished he was to learn that there was a lake. Even more surprising to him was a view of his younger brother in these sizzling blue flames, standing effortlessly on a middle of it, back facing him. If not for the ugly situation he found Yukio and himself in, Rin would say the view was beautiful.

Thunder shook the ground around them, rain kept on soaking every participant of this unusual occurrence. The place looked calm, eerie even. With a look around however the illusion of peace and beauty was easily dispersed leaving the traces of the fight clear in the rain. Few people were scattered around, knocked out cold but alive nonetheless. Maybe it was for the better they were unconscious.

"Oy, four-eyes!" Rin shouted into the sky, as loud as he could. He needed Yukio to come to him, not the other way around. "Yo, spotty-spot! I'm calling you!"

At that Yukio's posture changed, his shoulders tensed. Then he slowly turned around to stare at intruder.

"Rin..." he murmured, in trance.

Rin smirked. "I've come to kick your spotty ass, four-eyes!"

Yukio's eyes squinted. "You won't."

"Huh?"

"Because I won't let you."

The blue flames flared around, giving off a shine to the lake. Rin frowned, with his fang outside his mouth. He wasn't sure what but something was off about Yukio. There wasn't any trace of Satan's insanity but otherwise there wasn't any trace of his younger brother either.

It seemed as if complete stranger stood before him, staring with blue-red eyes...

"Tch" he snarled, narrowing his eyes at the demon. "Ya know I'm getting all fired up when you don't listen to me, four-eyes."

Yukio -or demon-to-be- cocked his head sadly. "Don't, nii-san. He's waiting for the right moment."

At that Rin's eyes went wide, scared. The situation was way too close to the one from months ago. "He's..?" he repeated, his hand on Kurikara's handle but unmoving.

Yukio nodded his head, finally turning side-ways towards his brother. He was smiling but the smile was forlorn and broken. "It's all my fault, nii-san. I should have known there's going to be Gehenna's Gate nearby but I didn't check."

Rin's face twisted in pain and sorrow for his brother. The younger one was still blaming himself for what happened, he was still fighting it alone. And he -Rin, being the big brother- asked him not to bear it all alone. But Yukio didn't listen, he never did.

Not able to hold it in any more, Rin snarled with tears spilling silently in-between raindrops, down his face. "Y-Yukio! You stupid, stupid idiot! I told you to come to me every now and then, why you didn't! I asked you to!"

Yukio however seemed completely unfazed by his outburst, he just stood with face blank in blue flames. "I'm... kinda holding him off, you know." There was a silent crack in his mind, and his hand reached to his temple. "Gack!"

Rin at that finally pulled Kurikara from sheathe and familiar flames sprang to life from within him. His partly demonic ears, fangs, tail and claws, now took appearance of those worn by fully pledged demon. Two blue flamed horns resided on his black hair.

Only then however Rin realised that his brother also changed, even more than the first -and only time- he's seen him in demonic form. Yukio just as him had two horns flaming on his head, his ears seemed even pointier than his own, he's even got a very similar lengthy appendage that was shining blue at the end while moving rhythmically to the sound of his heartbeat.

Yukio's eye twitched and he snarled loudly, now both hands digging into his short dark locks. At that Rin did what would every brother do and darted towards him, not thinking much of it. He was in the middle of the running on the lake when Yukio threw his one, open palm ahead of himself to stop him.

"Stop! Don't come any closer, nii-san! He wants you to come... Don't, please... Don't!"

Yukio's words stopped him instantly. With Kurikara in hand, his tail twitching angrily, Rin stood still. Only his blue eyes were taking in the picture before him, and he inhaled slowly.

"Yukio?" he asked, teeth almost snapping together. "Yukio, fight him! Push him out, you can do it! You fricken' DID IT BEFORE!"

There was a chuckle coming from Yukio. "I'm trying, it's not as easy... Maybe if, you close the Gate..? NYAHHHH!"

Enormous burst of the blue flame blasted Rin out his place and he actually skidded on the water, stopping only when he scratched at lake's surface with his demonic claws. Even then the burst was still coming out from Yukio, his flames swirling around in different shapes and just for a second Rin thought he saw the same shape that still haunted his dreams.

"YUKIO!" He scrambled to his hands and feet, jumping ahead towards his brother. He didn't care about world and certainly not himself. Because in his mind, heart and soul, he felt that without Yukio there wasn't Rin. If one of them were going to fall, then the other would do too. He crossed the distance between them in a record time and before he knew he was reaching with his free hand towards Yukio, soon after crashing their bodies together in a hug.

Younger male kept on screaming horribly, almost tearing at his hair and only with first touch of his sibling he snapped his eyes open, tears visible on his stricken face.

"Go away, nii-san!" he shouted into his brother's back, his eyes wide and terrified. "You're not helping!"

Rin however didn't budge but squeezed them harder. "I don't care, four-eyes. I'm not doing this for you."

At that Yukio seemed lost. His blue-red eyes then narrowed dangerously before he actually could home-in a strike. Rin stepped aside in an instant, tsked and smirked.

"Now, now, little one... You need be quicker than that."

"Nii-san!" growled Yukio, his teeth getting sharper. "Do you have a death wish?!"

He pondered for a second and then smiled. "Only if you have one, Yukio."

"Huh?"

At dumbfounded expression of his younger brother he almost laughed. He looked so confused and angry at the same time. He looked ridiculous.

"The thing is" he spoke, smirking in his big-bro mode. "Shura said something about us being two halves of a whole and I think she might be right. That's why, Yukio... No matter what, I'll always be with you."

There was another crack in young exorcist mind and his eyes got bit cloudier. When he spoke again his voice was different, mutated as if it wasn't one person speaking but many, many more. "What if he wants to die? Will you die with him?"

Stunned speechless, Rin gazed hypnotized at the swirl of the blue flames that burst around them. When it finally stopped, he saw the thing that froze the blood in his veins. The butterfly-shape on Yukio's back was almost mocking him, sizzling painfully with bright blue light.

Fresh sprout of tears gathered at his wide-opened eyes. A very ugly feeling spread through him when he couldn't take his eyes off the sight. It wasn't supposed to happen. His brother's face shouldn't take on that horrible, devilish expression that it did. Was it something he said? Why did Yukio stopped to fight? Why now? Why..? A million desperate questions filled his mind while his eyes took in the view before him. Because in that moment he knew it wasn't Yukio standing next to him but something way sinister and deadly.

As if on cue Yukio's face twisted into a wicked smile, and he looked at him with sickening pleasure. "Hello dear hellspawn of mine, I hope you enjoyed your short life..."


	2. Arc0 End ch2

Title: **Hellspawn**  
Chapter:** 2/?**  
Characters: **Shura, Amaimon, Mephisto**  
Genre: **Drama, Angst(?)**  
Summary: **_"By when Yukio's flames dissipated so did Rin's."_ **

**Warning**: Originally two-shot, now finished. Like before not beta'd so all mistakes are mine, English is not my main. ps. If my muse will keep strong this might become multichaptered. ps2. read&review

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Weather kept on biting into her skin, sending cold shivers running down her back. It was all over just a slight kink in the whole situation she was in. Because she – Shura – never, ever imagined being a witness to the repeat from _that_ day.

The day they lost Yukio if even just for a few minutes.

Right now, when she kept on pressing forward navigating between bushes with a sharp pang of pain in each step she took, the past events rushed back to her, leaving a sour taste in her mouth. Of course, it was a plain and simple plan on her side – to get to the gate and close it, but somehow she had a really bad feeling about this.

Her sword weighted heavily in her hand.

All she took in her sight was darkness illuminated in bluish hue, shining above tall trees. Her breaths were shallow and burned her chest with each intake of air, her left thigh also was slowing her down becoming more and more of a nuisance. However she wasn't going to back off, she wasn't going to give up.

Just not yet.

Finally after too long, she spotted first coal tars floating around thickness of trees. It was a good sign that she was getting closer. Without stopping she practically kept on dissolving the little black specks with her sword, pressing even faster and harder ahead.

Above her a thunder struck, loud rumble followed.

Only then Shura skittered to a abrupt stop as she haven't noticed that tiny coal tars swirled before her in a kind of a mock-barrier. Breathing heavily, she smirked and changed a grip on her sword.

The rain chilled her heated skin.

"Let's the fun begin!"

With a heavy stomp, she jumped from her right leg ahead, slashing with her sword towards the black mass. As she figured however each hit parted the barrier but only for a speck of time before more coal tars filled the hollowed space.

Seeing as she was alone, without backup, her situation wasn't good. Gritting her teeth together, she snarled loudly, once again rushing forward. She needed to get to the other side of them, and seeing for a flash sight of her wrist watch she knew she didn't have time for looking blindly for an entrance - if there was any. But as it happened there wasn't any visible doors to get through.

If there was the one thing that she heard in her ears then it was a dull sound of her heartbeat, and each tick of the seconds passing away.

Tick-tock went the clock.

Shura kept on trying different techniques but none were effective enough to let her slip by, as there were too many coal tars floating around. On the side note she noticed that she wasn't attacked by any demon just yet. With a breathless inhale, she eyed warily the barrier. It looked as if it was saving time for something – no not something, _someone_.

It was probably the second time in her life, to feel so defeated. The chances for her to get through were almost none, she was hurting all over her body and her emotions were starting to get better of her. Such unlike her. But right now, standing and glaring at that black mass, all she felt she could do was feel angry and tired at the same time.

Seven minutes passed.

"Tch..."

The burning in her chest weighted her down, as she slid slowly lower. Her right knee slapped with a slosh on the ground, her right hand holding tightly handle of sword etched into land. It was hopeless, wishful thinking that she will manage in time. Her will crumbled right there and then as she leaned her forehead on the sword and let tears slid down her face.

Oh how angry she felt with herself, with the world, with everything. The fire in her burned brightly, scorching her and making even more agitated. After everything they went through, all the pain and fear, confusion... they were supposed to just end up like _this_ once again? No, it wasn't fair. But on the other hand life never was fair.

Clutching the handle of her sword, Shura whimpered, her lips slightly parted. She gazed through her tear-glazed eyes at the barrier. Coal tars swirled in between themselves happily, completely unaware of her broken spirit. Just to think it wouldn't make much to posses her... but they didn't. They kept on ignoring her and that in itself was a scary thing.

There was only one more thing she actually could do though. It was a suicide to even think about it, but she was running low on ideas and that one was a last resort attempt. If that wouldn't work she would die either way – better this way than by Yukio's hand, she really didn't want to see to that.

Breathing shakily, she stood up – and her body screamed at her stinging, burning, throbbing with each and every pore of it – ready to do her last mission, ready to close the gate. Getting into stance, she spoke a verse – almost sang it quietly, desperately – and when finished, slashed with her sword letting her familiars slither wildly ahead, leaping after them a second later.

It all lasted a few long seconds but afterwards there was darkness.

Coal tars upon seeing her familiars turned in attack stance, just as she believed they would. She then continued to slash with her sword. One by one, hitting as closely as she could to the growing cut. Cut that was getting closed just as soon as the first slash hit the spot. All the time she had was mere seconds but she needed to press on and so she did.

Her body hit the barrier with a slam, halfway through but got stuck with coal tars repairing the damage done already. Breathing was gradually becoming more and more of a challenge, as she was easily overpowered by enormous amount of little buggers. Nevertheless with her sword tardily emerging from the barrier she actually believed that she'll manage get through. That is until her brain started to get fuzzy from the lack of air.

Frantically a bit, running short on breath, she yanked her sword from barrier and slashed as closely to herself as she could. It was enough to let her through and she stumbled from the sheer power of physics, landing on her knees and hands – sword slipping from her grip.

Coughing and cackling, Shura was half relieved that she managed to get over however her resolve was crumbled when a tall shadow towered above her. In a blink of an eye she looked upwards and saw a two-headed, four armed ghoul. It's first head opened wide, spitting acid but thankfully Shura darted out of the way in time. With no time to lose, she pin pointed the place where her sword was located and ran for it.

From the corner of her eye she also spotted the fricken' gate, wide and open – it's eye kept on looking at her, following her each step. It was one hella creepy feeling to be observed like a carrot on a stick.

Getting back on track, Shura was almost reaching for her weapon when something really large knocked her off her feet and send her flying towards near tree. She hit it with a sickening crumble as if something was just crushed and slid down like a rag doll. Unconscious as she was she never saw the coming figure, nor the other one sitting on the opposite tree branch watching.

After initial shock wore off and Shura actually came back to the world of living, her head throbbed painfully and her vision was blurry but enough to see the thing that loomed over her silhouette. It reached towards her and grabbed, lifting off the ground. Shura became aware of many things at once then, firstly her head pain was getting worse in an alarming rate, secondly she couldn't breath, thirdly she couldn't use her right hand as it fucking burned and ached at the same time meaning it was probably broken and then lastly the rain was becoming softer, the storm was calming.

Just as she closed her eyes, somehow accepting fate - her world spun on axis, as she was send flying down to the ground. Barely able to do much, she managed to fall onto her knees. Half wondering what happened she lifted her face but saw just a mere figure of a ghoul flailing around, trying to get up.

"Ne, you humans are such fragile things. No wonder brother send me after you, he knew you're going to die, one way or another."

The sound... The voice, it seemed familiar but from where? Shura stood shakily onto her legs and looked around but found no one to be there. Not thinking much of it, she slowly made her way to the sword, this time actually reaching it and securing in her left hand.

Without a word then she continued her pace towards the gate, as it bubbled and burped mockingly. It was small gate, a size of a doors probably but it managed to do so much more damage that it earned to be destroyed.

"Yare-yare Shura-sensei you're no fun at all."

That voice again.

"Should I play with you some then?"

With a swish of hot air, Shura's vision darkened only to clear a few seconds later to the view of few lesser demons, all ready to attack at any moment. She gripped her sword some more, but knew well enough that she couldn't fight with her left hand.

"Let me through!" she finally screamed, she really was pissed off by now. And time was still ticking out if she didn't run out of it already. "Just let me through..."

There was a loud sigh in the area and lesser demons evaporated in a blink.

"I was watching you, you seem to be kinda fun to be around. Funny that I didn't realise it before..."

At that Shura once again started towards the gate - now unguarded - and she believed it was the longest walk ever. Not only her eyes kept on closing themselves, her body was trembling in agony every now and then, but the person or whoever helped her wasn't making her feel any better, watching her just like that fucking gate that kept on blinking at her.

Finally standing before the gate to hell, she shivered and lifted her sword. One pierce through the eye was everything she needed and all would be fine. Of course she had her hopes in Rin that he managed to bring old Yukio back because if not... Well it wasn't the time to think about that. They didn't need Satan roaming the streets nor any Gehenna gate's open.

With final thought in her mind she pierced the eye but at the same time the ghoul from before once again towered over her. In a split second, two things happened at once. Gate screeched in agony, melting into nothingness and Shura turned around to find ghoul sit upon by a very familiar person.

_Demon_.

The funky clothing, green hair and slanted eyes were those of none other than Amaimon himself. He sat lazily, checking his long, black fingernails as if bored shitless. When he realized that sword was pointed straight at his face, he finally sighed and blinked, finally resting head on his palm.

"Bravo, Shura-sensei" he said in a bored tone. "I believe a fact that you're still alive will make my brother delighted."

"You..." Shura asked in response. She wasn't going to be given shit at this time. "Didn't Rin kill you?"

Amaimon clucked his long tongue. "No."

"Well..." Shura smirked albeit tiredly. "Then, I guess I'll have the first dibs."

Without thinking she slashed with her left hand but hit went wayward - completely missing it's target. Amaimon cocked his head to the side, thinking something.

"Y'know what, Shura-sensei?" he spoke, smiling wildly and then got up. He stretched around some then turned towards her biting on his nail. "We'll have our fun one day."

With those parting words, Amaimon jumped skywards, disappearing from the sight. Shura pondered for a second what happened and then laughed mirthlessly to herself. How stupid she was to actually wanting to fight with one of demon king's in this state? Well, all in all everything ended without additional body count. Sighing, she looked into the sky and enjoyed the drizzle on her face. Yet the blue lights that illuminated horizon seemed somehow brighter now and her guts twisted in worry.

Without looking back she darted - as fast as she could - to Rin and Yukio, hoping that both Okumura's are alive and well.

Wishful thinking.

After stretching minutes of her wobbling to the lake, she finally got there and was grounded on the spot. The bright blue light swirled around Yukio in a butterfly wing shape, Rin on the other hand was dangling from his outstretched hand that was pierced through older twin.

It took all in her might not to scream at the view.

Yukio...

No, it wasn't even him any more.

They lost it seemed, the gate was closed already and Yukio was gone, replaced by Satan.

In a last resort attempt, she slashed her sword through air, sending wave after wave towards twins. Neither of them even acknowledged her being there. Only after her adrenaline rush went away, Shura sat down on the ground, lake water soaking her legs and thighs but she didn't care. She openly stared at the blue flames, dancing wildly around twins.

Blue flames.

Rin's were becoming less and less prominent as his soul was leaving his body.

Then something happened, Shura saw Rin lift his head, speak and smile. She saw Yukio's inner battle clear in his rigid stance. So it meant there was still a chance? Even if it was a hopeless thinking, she wanted to believe in it. She did what she promised she'll never do again. She prayed for Rin, for Yukio. All those months spend with boys crumbled her outer tough girl façade if they knew it or not. She _learned_ to like them, to care for them and she would die first if she could. Because somehow they became her closest friends.

Time was running short on them now, Rin's flames were almost extinguished to the point of no return. And then, there was a scream, a loud loud scream coming from Yukio as his flames boomed around, some licking and scorching her skin.

And just like a supernova, once the explosion illuminated the sky, it sucked all of it back to drown everything in complete darkness.

By when Yukio's flames dissipated so did Rin's.

The silence that filled the place was unnerving and cold.

Then again before Shura realised what's going on, twins fell into lake's water, going down. She acted at once trying to step into the waters but stopped waist-in deep. It was pointless to try to get them, even if she was in perfect state she'd have problems with getting them both out, not to mention how she felt.

And she felt devastated.

Because in the end it looked that she was the last one standing.

Yet again.

Tardy waves were reaching the shore until they stopped completely. Tiny drizzle kept on falling, delicately illuminating everything in a glaze shine. Shura, she stood still, her limbs getting colder and numb. Only when the last wave reached her waist she slowly turned around and went towards shore. Somehow Yukio's words drifted back to her just now, after everything was done.

_ The key skidded on the ground._

_"Take it, it's... It's..." Yukio was fighting inside his own mind. He looked so lost and helpless then. There were wrinkles around his eyes and forehead. Always, always he kept Rin above everything else, especially himself. "Our room. G-get him out and run... R-run! A-as far a-away..."_

_Then he snapped and rushed towards her, he almost killed her. But she didn't want to leave him alone, she was scared – no, she was terrified – and didn't know what to do. There was always a minuscule chance of Yukio becoming Statan's vessel again but to that they would need huge amount of demon blood... Well, it seemed they still needed to learn._

"_Take him a-away from m-me! As f-far away as you... can."_

"_What about you?"_

"_Meph-phisto..."_

_And then she ran through the woods, she ran stupidly straight into Rin's room. _

Now, in the light of the events... it was the worst decision she ever made. It was on her coincidence that both Rin and Yukio were gone. And the latter one asked her to save Rin, to take him away and don't look back... then why she didn't?

Stepping ahead, Shura clenched her fist. Just as she blinked away oncoming tears a loud thump went behind her. Of course she turned at whim and stared, once again that night.

"Ne, Kirigakure-san, I believe you're looking for them" said Mephisto smiling brightly, his top hat sitting highly on his head. "Also don't beat yourself too bad about this situation, you couldn't do much."

"Mephisto?!" she shrieked, battered and tired. She had enough of this roller-coaster of emotions for one night. "How? When? Wha-"

Mephisto smiled, poking with his umbrella unconscious twins that were sprawled on the ground in a heap, both breathing loudly. "To say at least I didn't expect anything like this would be a lie. I never realised that young Okumura-sensei by surpassing his demonic side may have such strong side effect."

"So you're saying that all of this is because Yukio won't embrace his demonic side yet?"

Mehpisto nodded his head, smile not even thinking about leaving his face. "Exactly. Also I think it's time for Okumura-sensei to finally stop believing in what he's not, unlike Rin his powers cannot be turned off by sheathing sword... By the way where is Rin's kurikara?"

Shura shrugged agitated. "How I am supposed to know? I just barely managed to close a fucking gate to find half-dead Rin and Satan in Yukio's body... How the fuck you think I might happen to know where his sword is?!"

"Yare-yare, Kirigakure-san, you have a temper. I like it." At that Shura almost burst out raving. "But I understand that situation with gate. Nobody suspected that someone might want to open it in the first place which gets me to the point of those two..." He nudged with his umbrella Rin, who mumbled something in deep slumber. "After today I believe Okumura-sensei will be forced to have a meeting in Vatican for first, for second I think both boys earned some off-time... As well as need a good old fashioned training of their skills. Especially Yukio, seeing that he constantly is in denial as if this wasn't proof enough of his origins." At that he lifted a dark-brown, long tail with a small tuft of hair at the end.

Somewhere from the woods came loud footsteps, conversations. Someone was coming closer.

"What do you plan to do then? Mephisto?"

"Well..." he smiled devilishly and lifted his umbrella. "For now I'll take those two back to their hospital wing, as for you... Enforcements are coming" he winked then and pointed his umbrella over boys. "Eins, zwei, drei..."

Pufft and with a pink cloud he disappeared with twins leaving confused and battered Shura alone. She sighed tiredly. Well, for a simple standard mission it was one hell of a night. With a crooked smile nonetheless, she welcomed incoming backup.

"What took you so long?! I'm getting old in here you know!"


	3. Arc1 Alone ch1

Title: **Hellspawn**  
Chapter: **3/?**  
Characters: **Mephisto, Rin**  
Genre: **Drama, Angst(?)**  
Rating: **T**  
Summary: **_"Well, that put a kink in his perfect plan."_ **

**Warning**: No beta'd, etc… blah, blah, blah… OOCness (b/c I can't help but torture Rin, lel) Pretty much one-shotey just like first two, probably gonna write one more then end it, or not. Dunno. _ps. I need some one-sided clueless RinYukio so yeah, I'm writing a crappy fic x)_

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Beep - Beep

Beep - Beep

Beep - Beep

A steady high-pitched sound was filling chilly hospital wing.

The monotony of it was tedious if not boring-to-death. However the-only two occupants didn't mind, never really hearing any of it. Big, back-in-the-days almost always full hospital wing, now was holding only them – two teenagers comatose to the world, both healing slowly in aftermath of the latest events.

From behind big, rectangle windows first streams of sun were falling inside the room.

Beep - Beep

Beep - Beep

Beep - Beep

Beep - Beeeeeeeee-

Beep - ...

Beep

Beep

* * *

**{7 months later **_as the life _went on**}**

This time, it was a last straw for him, as he snapped - very loudly and wordy - as he always did. His superior – Mephisto Pheles, who looked bored as ever – stood nonchalantly in the rain. Ah, the rain – always the rain. The situation seemed very much like a repeat of the event that happened few months back – minus the burning of blue flames.

Slow but steady drizzle kept on falling from white-grey sky adding to the gloominess of the sight.

On one side stood he - Mephisto Pheles, tall and arrogant like ever. In his hand a white-pink fluffy umbrella kept him dry from sky drops that unmercifully would drench him in a wink. However he didn't pay an eyelash to them, his slant eyes boring into another pair, that were as undeterred as he himself was.

On the other side was thus slouched – yes, _slouched_ – one of the latter Okumura twins. His posture spoke volumes with his wild eyes almost holding a promise of impending bloodshed, his hands fisted and ready to strike first person that would stand in his way and flaming anger in the tone of his voice.

Because he, Rin Okumura kept silent for too long now.

And just as that kettle that was reaching it's peak so was he. Rin, he kept to himself too much emotional baggage for the past seven months, twelve days, fourteen hours and eleven minutes. But just as that kettle was finally boiling, he too snapped.

Gone were his fake smiles and happy-go-lucky attitude, gone was that teenager everybody knew and liked.

Gone was the Rin that had younger twin.

Thus before Mephisto Pheles stood new, crippled version of Rin Okumura – son of Satan, the _only_ Okumura – that actually only now dropped his act, when the emotions overlapped too thickly, too much and he couldn't hold his own any more.

And so, Rin glared with hatred at his mentor, shouting and spitting his every being towards him.

"Give him back! Give... me... my... brother... back! Yukio..!"

Ones of many, many words that spilled from his mouth however stayed just as words, as you couldn't bring back the dead.

Mephisto's eyes hardened somehow upon such an act on Rin's side, he honestly didn't expect such malice from _this_ Okumura, even after months from _the day_. Oh, okay... so yes, maybe he _did_ but not at such range. Of course he didn't like the way young half-demon kept on calling him names and blaming for his own – personal – loss but then after reminiscing the last few months he couldn't help but smile a very creepy smile hence incoming bad-mouthing.

"We both know it's not possible Rin-kun" he provoked ired Okumura, who's teeth were bared in a very ugly snarl. "Okumura-sensei is gone and there is nothing you can do about it but move on."

Sensing the challenge in the air, Rin only clutched his fists tighter. Strikingly unwelcoming pain soared inside his chest – no, his _soul_ itself – spreading like a plague in a whim. His breathing became shallower, quicker. Bared teeth were pointy as ever, his ears almost changing into his full-demon form but there was none of the blue flames that he would-be sporting by now if not for his self-conciousness... or rather his _lack_ of self-control.

One only now would realise that young Okumura was lacking his all-time-wearable sword. Kurikara that was tucked securely underneath his bed – _in his room number 602, that still held too many memories, ones that he couldn't stand alone any more_ – cracked and not-ever-again holding his true self imprisoned within.

The blue flames were roaming free within him, finally making him whole, complete – but without the person that belonged by his side.

"No, I don't believe you, stupid bastard clown! _I am_ a Satan's son, _I am_ a half-demon _and I will go_ to Gehenna and back again just to bring Yukio back!"

"Tche..."

Mephisto tsked lightly upon hearing more and more of the nonsense young Okumura kept on spilling. It was a laughable debate on Rin's side, more of a monologue really. And Mephisto really, really wanted to burst out laughing but a tiny thought kept on nagging at him, reminding at the same time that this half-demon before him actually managed to face their real father and live thorough the ordeal.

Well, that put a kink in his perfect plan.

"Fine then, be it your way" he spoke, shrugging-their-conversation off. He glanced from a corner of his eyes at young demon, who still needed to learn so much but was already on the good way to do it. He smirked crookedly then turned around, stepping ahead.

"Where the hell do you think you're going, fluff-clown?!"

Loud, fast paced splotchy steps sounded on the ground and then there was a silence. Rin's hand rounded on white-coated arm and held there, trying to crush the body underneath it. Mephisto chuckled, once again gazing from corner of his eyes at young Okumura.

"You, young demons think you can do everything you want but the truth is... You can do nothing" he clucked his tongue, closing eyes and sighed tiredly. "You – Rin Okumura, might be holding Satan's flames within but you're still half human." At that he nonchalantly turned around, completely ignoring the fact that Rin was actually having a hard time with holding his hand in place. "You have nothing compared to me" he added, lightly gripping Rin's hand and tearing it from white material, damaging it in the process. "I liked this coat. I'll have to deduct it from your next month's allowance."

Rin's face was sporting by now deep red blotches as he was utterly baffled.

"What do you mean, you stupid clown?! What next month's allowance?! I don't need your stinky money so you can just as well shove it up your ass for all I care! Just tell me already why you're lying to me? Why won't you tell me where Yukio is?!"

Mephisto sighed and then shallowly nodded towards grey tombstone that stood nearby.

"_This_ _is_ his resting place."

Rin however had nothing of it. "Bullshit!" he snarled, the red in his eyes swirled wildly. "This is not! He's alive and I know it!"

"Okumura Rin" Mephisto said smirking, his eyes seemed to dance in the rain. "Why do you keep on believing that your dear brother is alive?"

Stuttering just a tad bit, Rin concluded his unusual outburst. His eyes harsh and calculating practically bored into his mentor's face. "I know it, I feel it..." at that his face closed down, as if a mask came up and covered it. "You might know what I'm talking about, it might be a demon's thing for all I know... or maybe just Yukio's..."

"And that is your explanation of scaring half-to-death your classmates, not to mention skipping last few days of cram school? Tell me, what would Yukio say if he knew that now _after_ the sentence that was placed on your head was lifted you tucked your tail and ran away..?"

"I'm not running away!" Rin argued, his tail lashing wildly on the ground. "I just want to know the truth, you bastard! So tell me why did you fake Yukio's death?! Moreover, where is he now?!"

At some point he might've been right furthermore Mephisto sighed somehow defeated. "You're one persisting pest, half-demon." Hearing that put Rin in fully-aware mode, even his tail stopped in mid-whim. Mephisto thus continued his thought. "Plus I believe you won't leave me be until I spill the beans, am I right?" Upon Rin's nod he smiled like a Cheshire-cat. "However do you really want to know, Rin-kun? Will you be able to live with the thought that maybe, just maybe _you're_ actually _wrong_?"

Black tail whipped to the side in agitation. "Ne, you bastard, stop with all this cryptic bullshit and say it already!"

"Fine then, Rin-kun I feel terribly sorry for your loss but..."

"But..?"

A heartbeat.

"It's real."

"No... No, it's not! It's not true, he's alive and_ I will_ find him!"

Mephisto shook his head with his smile still in place. "You're so unbelievably convinced that Okumura-sensei is still alive that I find it utterly amusing. However..." His eyes slanted bit more, a single fang appeared at the side of his mouth. "As much as I would love to have some more fun with your moody persona, I think it's time to stop. You managed pretty well on your own, Okumura Rin, and for a long time too."

"Huh..? What's _that_ supposed to mean fluff-clown?"

The smile took on a devilish turn. "It means you passed your first trial."

"First..? Trial..?" Rin asked bewildered, he blinked few times. "What are you babbling about now?!"

"I'm talking about your first real demon training, or rather your passing of it. Now-now, don't do this face for too long or it's going to stay like that. Why so surprised, Rin-kun? Hm?" Mephisto said slowly, deliberately. He was clearly taking his sweet time with answers. "Unlike Okumura-sensei, you always relied on your Kurikara, seeing as I sealed demonic powers inside it years ago. Well, until few months back, you do remember that day, don't you?"

"With your Kurikara on the lake's bottom and Satan's flames bursting like that it finally cracked and unsealed your true power from it. As much as I want to, my power is not even close to that of Satan's but that's beside the point. My point is that I needed to see if you're able to withstand your inner-demon and what's the best way to see it if not to fake your brother's death?" At that he chuckled sweetly, before towering above stunned Rin and whispering, "We all know how profound your bond is, don't we all?"

"Wha- Yukio-"

"Stunned speechless, how unlike you. But be kind and close your mouth, you look like a fish taken out of water, I might start to get worried."

Rin finally snapped his open mouth shut, not without furrowing his brows or baring his fang. "Does this mean I was right? Yukio's... he's alive..?"

Mephisto nodded curtly. "Mmhm-mhm... There's just one tiny detail about your brother's state however..."

"I don't care!" cut in sharply Rin, his face was almost splitting in two from smiling too hard. "I want to see him!"

At that Mephisto stopped whatever he wanted to say and pouted. "Are you sure?"

"Hell yeah, f'course I'm sure! Take me to him, even now if you can..."

One nod was all it took, oh and a very twisted smile on Mephisto's face. "If you're sure... then lets go."

With one quick turn of his umbrella, Mephisto's eyes twinkled and drizzle stopped in mid-air. View so strange and alien for Rin that he panicked a bit, looking frantically between himself and Mephisto.

"What's going on? What did you do, clown?"

"Well, you wanted to see Yukio, did you not?" Mephisto asked plainly, as if it was weather they were speaking about not time-space alternation.

"Y-yeah but..." Rin stepped ahead and realised that even when drops hung in air he could easily catch them on. After awhile his face somehow brightened, smile bordering on painful once again. "Wow..."

At seeing pure astonishment on Rin's face, Mephisto laughed. A loud, all-round laugh. When he stopped he saw a pair of blue eyes glaring at him with despise. To avoid any other obstacles in his _overly-accelerated_ plan, he cleared his throat and stepped closer to young male. On his way he closed that fluffy umbrella of his.

Mephisto yet again towered above Rin, who was standing his ground – gritting his teeth in irritation. Only then Mephisto pointed with his almighty-umbrella towards sky and started to circle it.

"Be ready, Rin-kun" he said before he continued with, "Eins, zwei, drei-"

A crack kind of like old wooden floors would make boomed from sky and soon after a huge cuckoo-alike-house appeared above both of them. As much as Rin was scared shitless of the happening, he almost fainted when that huge thing _slammed down_ into them – thankfully with the place where the doors were supposed to be, but he wasn't sure because...

After that everything went dark.

And Mephisto only chuckled at comatose Okumura, who was clearly going to be out-cold for some time. Well, time... He chuckled again. They had tons of it in spares, especially in the place they were in.

In that bubble of reality he used as his pocket-dimension that is.


	4. Arc1 Alone ch2

Title: **Hellspawn**  
Chapter: **4/?**  
Characters: **Rin, Mephisto, Amaimon, Yukio**  
Genre: **Drama, Angst(?)**  
Summary: _**"There was almost a 'please' at the end of that question." **_  
Disclaimer: **I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.**

**Warning**: No beta'd, etc. Sorry, I'm done. I can't write happy fic, I feel sorry for Rin but he's going to get his happy end... (_I think?_) **ps.** I don't have a fucking idea (_if_)_what_ to write next - as there is no plot whatsoever in the fic (_h-e-ll-o_). So yeah it can be basically the end, thanks for follows tho and sweet reviews (_I'm looking at you *wink*_)! **_Jaa ne!_**

* * *

He was adrift in an abyss.

He saw things, heard them and even felt more-or-less some of them.

Wondering about everything what happened to him - no, to _them both _- in the last year, he kept on drifting ahead or so he thought he was. The emotions – _mixture of them, from glee to confusion and even fury_ - were swirling inside him, just as entire events of his life happened to be coming back to him like some kind of a terrifying wake-up call.

_There was a laughter bubbling from him, he just couldn't help himself. Thinking about this situation - like seriously though - how was he supposed to know beforehand that Yukio's glasses are going to crack and **then** land back perfectly onto his head afterwards?  
"Look at that they landed perfectly!"  
Unfortunately his younger brother did not find this funny at all, as it seemed that he was a very much pissed off._  
"_What in the hell is so frickin' funny?!"  
Gulping through too-fast clenching throat he barely croaked, doing one of his cute, confused faces. It wasn't that he did it on purpose, oh no. Yukio simply pestered him a bit too much about everything lately and he reacted. Besides it always was Rin the one being in-hot-water so to speak. As if anything it was Yukio's fault that the whole ordeal happened in the first place, wasn't it?_

Memories.

Yes, memories once deeply buried inside his mind now floated free, reminding him of the bond he shared with Yukio _so long time ago_. Especially now, after all this time he spend on trying to catch a glimpse of the truth – _the truth that he believed was stolen from him_.

Some of the memories were painful like a little stabs into heart as they kept on coming, changing and morphing, others on the contrary soothed those fresh wounds that were opening anew. Even so, that were his real feelings about each and every memory he had of his twin.

Upon reliving more and more of his memories, his chest clenched involuntarily at the anger he felt so many times - _back then_ - towards Yukio before his so-called death – sometimes almost _hatred_, and _hope_ that soon enough _they would part their ways_, so he could finally live his life as he wanted. Thinking back about those moments he finally saw how _stupid_ and even _heartless_ he was to even think such things - he never really meant any of them though;_ that's why_ _after he finally accepted a fact that his Yukio – his twin – was gone forever, he stopped to care about school, about becoming exorcist... Because there wasn't Yukio any more, so why would he need to become one now?_

So many things happened in the past months which he spend alone, without pestering of the young exorcist and his kind smiles reserved only for Rin – that it hurt. It hurt a bit too much to feel again that _ire_ and _pleasure_ at Yukio's _outrage _and_ misfortune_. There was even more to it, as memories kept on replaying itself in his mind.

They were jumbled, appearing in-no-particular order. Their happily spend childhood moments intertwined with those from last years, when everything changed – _when Yukio became his teacher and he... he awoke as a demon._

Happiness and sadness.

Sorrow and joy.

How their lives became so messed up? Why did they? Why there was no more glee in being together, like before when they were brothers - _and nothing more_ - looking up to each other at every turn? It seemed it flew off on a wide-spread wings into the night sky on the day when their father – _Shiro_ - died. Their perfect world crumbled, that little safety bubble popped – to never emerge back.

"_What's the matter everyone?" asked Yukio, looking intently at everybody gathered in the classroom. "It looks like a perfectly splendid birthday cake to me" he added, somehow trying to save Rin from uproar coming from the rest of their friends. Just like his younger brother he didn't really understood what was all that noise about.  
Upon hearing that entire class glanced at Yukio completely shocked to hear it coming from their sensei. Sensei who instantly sweatdropped terribly, not really knowing where to hide from piercing eyes of his students and friends. Only sometime later, when Ukobach held a "Confectionery Manufacturing Specialist" book in his hands and practically was shoving it into their faces, they finally understood the mistake._  
"_So birthday cakes and Christmas cakes are totally different, huh?" said Rin, sweating a bit. Yukio who stood arm-in-arm with him – with his hands crossed, also sweating a bit – only confirmed their confused predicament._  
"_It's our moment of truth after fifteen years, right, nii-san?"  
In this moment they both turned their eyes towards each other, both flustered and pouted. In the end though Rin smiled and clasped his hand onto Yukio's arm, lessening thick curtain of embarrassment. And so younger twin also smiled and nodded his head, eyes never leaving Rin's smiling face._

In that one dark, barely lit room, Rin kept on dreaming - _completely lost in his memories of Yukio _- unaware of the conversation that took place on the other side of the strange place he was in.

"Young Rin-kun is still sleeping, that's a bit bothersome..."

"Maybe you hit him too hard on the head, brother" Light-skinned hand reached towards pack of crisps that was lying behind person and grasped it. With one smooth move it was opened and it's contents were eaten by said person. Loud crunches filled the room. "You're not very delicate when you're in a hurry."

_Brother_ shrugged nonchalantly, crossing one leg over other. "Well, we can't have all, can we?" he asked, reaching for a tiny tea cup that waited silently on a small, round coffee table. He huffed at hot contents before taking a sip. "Now, I asked you to come because I've heard some very... _interesting_... things about Moriyama Shiemi's doings. How do you cope?"

Amaimon licked his long fingers for some time before actually taking them out of his mouth with a tiny pop. "I haven't had so much _fun_ in ages..."

At that slanted eyes narrowed just a tad bit more than normally they would. "Amaimon..."

But he shrugged it off with a bright smile on his face and leaned comfortably over his armchair, reaching for another bag of – _sweets_ this time. He opened it and ate, openly leaving his brother pondering.

"I understand circumstances are nifty but you shouldn't mess too much with Okumura's friends."

With a mouth full of candies, Amaimon rolled his eyes. "I'm just having fun with that Shiemi girl, no worries about all of them."

"From them all you needed to pick actually _her_..." _brother_ murmured then sighed, closing his eyes and taking another sip from cup.

"Oi!" Amaimon piped in, clearly offended. "It's her fault! She should finally learn how to do a proper summoning, ne?"

Mephisto Pheles upon hearing that slowly opened his eyes and glanced at his younger kin. "She shouldn't be able to summon _you_ of all demon's on the world. It's interesting thing in itself that she actually did."

Amaimon agreed wholeheartedly nodding, only to lock his eyes onto one lonely spider web that sat somewhere above them. "Well, yeah. It was fun though!"

"And that's what bothers me. You shouldn't mess with Moriyama girl or you might get hurt."

Upon hearing those words Amaimon burst out laughing like mad, tiny droplets of not-yet-eaten sweets landed around him onto fluffy, carmine carpet.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU SHMUCK?!" roared Mephisto at seeing his beautiful carpet being brutally destroyed. "THIS IS A SPECIAL MOE-MOE CARPET YOU'RE SPITTING ONTO?!"

Amaimon however kept on laughing, holding his stomach in doing so. Tears were in the corners of his green eyes when he calmed – just some. "Y-you think she'd kill me! Me? I'm the demon king of earth, nobody can kill me! Not even Okumura-kun could..."

Glaring from behind his round top-hat, Mephisto was radiating pure malice. His eyes shone with red. "I'm not talking about death as it happens it's the least of our-kind's problem... But..." he smirked now in evil glee. "Maybe she will bind you to her, use as a mere puppet to do her _work_, _no_ _fun_ intended."

That stopped younger demon instantly. Hearing words such as 'work' or 'no fun' were his weak points which were – _as it seemed _- still as effective as ever. Amaimon blinked once, twice then started to bite upon his long, black fingernail. If not for a slight narrow of brows, Mephisto would say he looked troubled.

"Don't tell me she bound you to do her biding already" he spoke nonchalantly, not even really meaning the words before he tried to take another sip, which was interrupted abruptly when Amaimon bit off his nail and looked at him ashamed. He spat his tea around, soaking everything in it's reach. "You did not... Amai-kun?"

Answered him abashed turn of green-haired head and long, long sigh. Then person slouched into armchair, almost drowning in it, in the process. "I don't know how it really happened though" he stated, clearly confused. "I didn't even help her... Just took a small bite off her, that's all I did, I promise!"

On Mephisto's head a small vein popped out but he sighed slowly to calm his rising blood-pressure. Really though, Amaimon was so ignorant towards the laws of Assiah that he couldn't help but feel rising ire towards him.

"Was it really?" he pressed on, now openly staring at demonic-moronic brother of his. And he even didn't look bothered by the fact that he was bound to a human being. "You do know how bonds are made, do you not?"

Amaimon shrugged, pouting.

"You needed to help her or at least abide to her command. Whichever it was, you bound yourself to her... Your ignorance is unbelievable. I've been repeating to you over and over again that there are laws in Assiah you need to acknowledge and submit to."

"Like I said though, I've had fun. So it's not so bad..." Amaimon shrugged. He smiled then, remembering something. "Also I'm not _as_ ignorant as you think I am... I'm actually pretty smart too" he kept on saying, now proud as ever. "I've marked her too! Now she's mine just like she made me hers. It's a two-way street, ne?"

Mephisto for the first time in his life facepalmed himself. Hard. And slouched on his very comfortable moe-moe, fluffy armchair trying to erase last few minutes of his life from his memory. To no luck.

Oh hell, if he thought that his plan happened to have a slight kink, now it was an entire hole, and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to fix it in any way possible.

"A-MAI-MOOOOOOON!"

A ground-shaking screech shook the entire place, unintentionally rousing young half-demon from his slumber. Rin who groaned loudly and then continued to sit up, after few passing seconds slowly looked around himself half-wondering if everything what he saw - _what he felt_ - was just a dream, or maybe something more? For all he knew, his head felt light and woozy but he had been too perplexed at his surroundings to actually care about it.

Wherever he glanced he saw darkness - _pitch-black, harsh, holding him in it's claws_ – and that was all he needed to panic. His heart rate sky-rocketed when he jumped to his feet but still saw just empty place, no floor nor walls. A thought crossed his mind that maybe he was still trapped in his dreams, or rather _nightmares_.

But as he frantically turned around -_ to see nothing yet again_ - his mind finally settled at his latest memory of his showdown with Mephisto at Yukio's grave. A light of hope suddenly soared to life within him, when he remembered that in this place – _somewhere_- was Yukio. Well and alive just like Mephisto said... or... maybe not? Only now a very ugly thought occurred to him that maybe - _just maybe_ - Mephisto was playing him by giving him a false hope for something impossible.

No, no... Shaking his head, Rin decided that he's being paranoid – wasn't it him, who told Mephisto about feeling Yukio's bond?

Gulping, he sighed and looked down at his hidden hands. Standing in this strange place, he felt lost. There was no pull from the bond that he felt for some time now – _bond which was becoming stronger, but even so it was a kind of hit-and-miss thing; sometimes disappearing for days to come but then practically knocking him off his feet with the sheer strength of it._ And right now, here, there was nothing. No pull, no push. As if a thin thread that circled his little finger of his left hand finally broke and left him alone to figure it out, what it was in the first place – or rather if _was it even real?_

As if anything, it was the least thing he wanted to do right now. Thoughts of Yukio still clouded his mind, the memories nagging him to finally move ahead. To do something, anything. Yet he only felt trembles of his body, his hands taking his own face into them and sob which shook him to the core.

Because he was weak, oh _so weak_ without Yukio – and that weakness grew on him since the day he said his goodbyes to his dead twin. Only now, it finally seeped through his heart, affecting mind and body. For months he acted strong and merrily for Yukio since he was gone, but then again one could live a lie only for so long until it's charm broke. And at that time, when it happened – it wasn't pretty, quite the opposite; adding to it his violent nature and lack of Kurikara's stability...

Rin trembled, hands sliding down his face.

And just as he done that he felt a familiar slight tug on his pinky finger. Blue eyes widened, breath caught in throat, he froze. In thoughts he kept on repeating _Yukio's _name, as if tiny tug on his finger could actually answer his prayers and guide him to his twin.

When another pull came, he didn't hesitate – just followed the lead into darkness.

As his feet kept on going, Rin never really realised that he was in a maze. Dark, long corridors were stretching horribly ahead – to no end, but he kept pressing on. The pull was light and almost impalpable but it was there, and it directed him through many twists and turns.

Sometimes on his way, he'd see a one lonely lamp that would scatter absolute blackness. Other times he'd follow blindly after his bond, his faith urging him to walk on.

Rin turned another invisible corner when he felt a pull towards one particular direction. As he walked over he understood that before him stood huge, baroque doors. Steady tug of his bond became stronger as he placed his hands onto them – searching for a doorknob or at least a tiny chink so he could open them up. To his utmost surprise he actually found a huge round - _old fashioned_ - doorknob which he pulled with all his might.

After few stretchy minutes and noisy screech of wooden doors, he silently stepped inside hidden room to be welcomed by a view what simply mesmerized him. His eyes stared at one specific point in the chamber – _which was just like entire place completely drowned in dark, if not for a single bluish streak of light that barely lit tiny space around it_ – and he couldn't stop himself from going deeper into it absolutely enthralled by the vision.

His own steps seemed to echo in his ears. The chamber was so silent and eerie it was giving him a creeps but it wasn't the atmosphere of it that was making him feel so... dazed. Because in his entire life – Rin - never saw anything so heart _warming_ and _shattering_ at the same time, as what he found inside that chamber.

Long, lanky legs stopped him in a middle of it – a few meters from a sight he's never going to forget, not until his last breath. He let his blue eyes follow the view slowly, to confirm that what he was seeing was real.

As it was, from the pitch-black floor stood - _or maybe floated?_ - a long, blueish crystal which tried to lit chamber with it's light but even more so, it held Yukio inside it – _his Yukio, his twin brother._ The vision was so surreal, like the one from a dream – but it was real, it was Yukio and he seemed to be asleep, for a very long time. What however almost shattered his heart were tiny details he noticed of his brother.

Wayward hair caught forever in the moment, slightly opened mouth, no trace of any kind of pain just peacefulness on light-skinned face. A pointy curves - _more demonic than normally_ - of his ears, two longer fangs, wildly curled tail... Rin would even risk to say he saw a trace of a blue flames imprisoned within the crystal with him.

However it seemed he not only was entrapped by those crystal as his body was also tangled with thick, greenish vines - as if to keep him in place. To Rin, Yukio's frame seemed somehow thinner than he remembered it to be. In here – _now_ – his twin's lanky body was twisted towards side with one hand falling down along his body and the other stretched upwards. Even his head - _which was bend down_ - was also slightly upturned by those ugly looking vines.

In all, Yukio resembled a very grotesque picture of a person suddenly entrapped by abyss itself.

Even so, he still looked so peacefully. There was no pain, not single emotion on his face – just his three moles that always stood out.

Somehow shakily, Rin found himself chuckling through gathering tears. Tears which shone in his eyes but none fell, holding onto that happy part of him from seeing his brother once again.

"Yukio..."

His twin was wearing plain white shirt and black pants, no shoes nor anything more really. Shirt was opened in some places - _torn in other _- leaving healthy skin to the view, a few scraps of white material hung from those vines he noticed. Yet even upon closer look there was no breath coming from him, as his chest wasn't moving.

"Ah, before I realised you're awake, you've been gone..." came a voice from direction of an exit. Rin didn't bother turning, as he knew the owner by his heart now. "Sorry for making you wait but you've been knocked out cold for quite some time."

Rin of course knew that, his dreams being a very vivid reminder of that state. He blinked twice before his hands curled at his sides, burning anger rising within him. There was so many things he needed to know, things he needed to understand.

He needed the truth.

And so he did what everybody would in his place, he asked one simple question of, "How?"

Mephisto, who stood proudly - _being him and all _- clucked his tongue before actually answering. Young esquire didn't bother to even turn towards him so he on the other hand didn't bother to come closer either.

Darkness swirled in the chamber, bluish light silently shining around them.

"How you ask..." repeated Mephisto, pondering. He smiled his usual smile and continued on. "How I'll tell you. Three days after _Blue Lake_, both you and Yukio were still in a coma. To be honest, I didn't really think that Okumura-sensei would live through first night after the event..."

"Why?" cut in sharply Rin, his eyes still concentrated on the vision of his brother. "Why did you think-"

Mephisto coughed, loudly. "If you kindly shut up, I will tell you everything." At that Rin shuddered with anger but kept silent nonetheless. Pleased with that, Mephisto inhaled before speaking up again. "On that night I've found you both on death's doorstep – literally speaking. Even with your fast healing. Unfortunately unlike yours, Yukio's body couldn't keep up with all inner bleeding he's been having. So it means we've been losing Okumura-sensei pretty fast, even after every treatment we tried. We were running out of time, so on the third day, I've spoke with Kirigakure-sensei about our last chance at keeping him alive - even if barely. Result you have before your own eyes, Rin-kun."

"That's not the answer I wanted to hear, you bastard!" snarled Rin, his black tail suddenly lit up in blue flame just as his whole body was consumed by it.

There was a long, painful sigh. "You're one ungrateful brat, half-demon. Not only I saved your lives but am helping you learn how to control your temper."

"I don't give a shit! I want Yukio back! Let him out of that thing!" he growled, now turning around and shooting daggers at older demon. Mephisto all but shook his head in response. "You bastard! I'll..."

Mephisto smiled, rolling his umbrella in hand. "You'll what? Kick me? Call me stupid-fluff-clown?" he smirked, his eyes twinkled. "Or maybe... _kill me_?"

At that Rin took one step ahead, yet didn't move further afterwards. "You still didn't tell me everything. There is more to your story, so spill out! Now!"

"Of course there is, Rin-kun, didn't I ask you to _not_ _interrupt_ me?" Rin's lips twisted in disdain, fangs dangerously shining in blue light. "Much, much better. Now, where was I... Ah, yes, I've got it. Like I said results of my help you can see for yourself but I must tell you one thing, Okumura Rin... There is no assurance that Yukio's going to wake up any time soon. It might take a day, a week... Entire year or even more before his wounds would be completely healed. It looks that this time Satan's flames were going for a kill" by now, Mephisto glanced towards sleeping Okumura with something akin to melancholy. "It's already been seven months since I've put him to dreamless sleep yet there wasn't once a slight change in him. Do you remember when you spoke about your bond? That you felt his presence?"

By hearing more explanations Rin's anger subsided, he let his flames burn though. With a nod, he prodded his mentor to continue.

"You've been right. Demons _can_ feel presence of own _kin_. I feel Yukio's all the time as I've put him in this special place, that's always in my reach. However I'm surprised that you felt it too as you shouldn't... Not when it's hidden under my illusion. Which is _interesting_..."

"It's been a tug" spoke Rin, no more snarling nor shouting. He just wanted to add to conversation his own two cents. Thinking more over the bond he glanced at his pinky finger and then half-turned towards Yukio. "I've felt a tug on my little finger" he kept on saying, his face slowly going impasse. His feelings calming down after literal hurricane they were before. "Every time I walked next to you I've felt a pull... then one time I might've overheard your talk with Kirigakure-sensei..."

"Ah" Mephisto chuckled. "That's why you kept on believing that your twin is alive."

"That's why I've wondered why would you lie to me about him" Rin confirmed, his tail slowly swinging and then stopping entirely. "I've never thought that..."

"That he's held inside huge healing crystal, dormant."

He nodded shortly, his hair swaying some from the movement. "Ye-ah..."

Now that all emotions finally calmed, when situation was somehow explained Mephisto sighed and closed his eyes. Of course he wouldn't ever tell anybody that he felt sorry for Okumura Rin in that one moment.

"Could I...?" stuttered Rin, his words suddenly failing him. He looked back at his mentor, not really caring at what he saw in that one second. "Could I... visit him?"

There was almost a 'please' at the end of that question.

The voice he used was so soft, it surprised Mephisto. He'd never really think that this little _hellspawn_ could actually be gentle, knowing how violent he's most of the times. Unbeknown to himself, he nodded quietly staring and smiling – so unlike himself! Where was a smartass comment he should be spilling by now?

But... there wasn't any.

"Thanks."

Totally unaware of Mephisto's confusion, Rin slowly smiled turning towards the huge crystal that held his brother's life within. Before any of them registered what happened next, Rin's legs moved him ahead.

With a single tear slipping from his wide-opened eyes, Rin caressed the crystal vessel with a crooked smile on his troubled face.

"Get better soon, Yukio.

I will wait."


	5. Arc1 Alone ch3

Title: **Hellspawn**  
Chapter: **5/?**  
Characters: **Shiemi, Amaimon, Rin, Shura, Mephisto,**  
Genre: **Angst, start-Fluff!**  
Summary: _**"**__**So yeah, he might've been captivated by his brother's '**__state_' but it was normal to want and see his sibling, wasn't it?"   
Disclaimer: **I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.**

**Warning**: No **beta**'d, etc. anime!ver, AU, prob OOC (I try to keep it as canon as I can *sigh*), cursing and also slight **brocon**. Okay mah first try at getting Rin happy after all the crying and shit he went through~ (*_wheezes in the distance_*) Guys I need to know, what would you want to see next (_as I'm short on ideas, lol_) + I'm going with the flow and next chappie is gonna be the last one of the_ Arc1 Alone_ so yeah; Yukio's gonna wake with a blast ~(^w^~) Be kind and **R&R** ALSO USE YOUR IMAGINATION WHEN READING x3 (*_hides back under carpet_*)**_  
_**

* * *

"Ohayou, Yuki-chan..." greeted a soft, feminine voice. Warm breeze ruffled light-blonde hair, it's owner smiled and then continued, clearly enjoying this beautiful day.

"How are you? I hope you're still as happy as you can, being wherever you are now. Well..." girl's voice lightened. "Rin... He's getting better, I thought I'll inform you as you're not really with us any more. He came back to cram school as well. Of course... There's a clear dislike of the new Anti-Demon's Pharmacology teacher from his side but the fact stands that he's actually came back."

There was a silent pause in her one-sided conversation, girl obviously was thinking something through. When she spoke again there were tears swirling in her big, green eyes but otherwise she was smiling brightly.

"Yukio" she whispered while another gust of wind swept her free blonde wisps into the air. "After... you..." A sniff followed this couple words and she shook her head angrily, cheeks rosy from irritation. "Rin, he... You have no idea how he acted when you've been gone. I thought that it was his way of coping with your... _passing_ but soon enough I understood... it wasn't it. I saw right through his façade, that mask he kept on wearing every day – acting as if nothing really happened. But it did and I... might've gotten angry... Told him a few things that I'm going to regret for the rest of my life..."

Another sniff escaped but this time she needed to rub her eye – even if just slightly. Next words that slipped her mouth were muffled by thus sleeve. "Please don't hate me for this... Yukio. I'm sorry." She inhaled fresh air and waited for her heart to calm down, only then she spoke on.

"We all miss you, you were that one person that was always there, you know? Not only that but you were the best, Dragoon and Doctor at such age – a real prodigy." At simple thought of her Okumura-sensei, she smiled – eyes closed and cheeks flushed a bit. "You're our inspiration to keep going. To get stronger. Mine, Bon's, Shima's, Izumo's, Konekomaru's... Rin's. Everybody's really" at that she couldn't help but to chuckle. Her eyes opened and gazed at engraved name on cold, harsh stone. "I am really happy that we had a chance to meet."

When everything was said and done, she lightly swept her hand over grey gravestone and breathed deeply – trying to get a hold of herself.

"I guess you're still watching over him, even now. _Thank you._ Thank you for everything, Yuki-chan. Also I think you'll be pleased to hear that _our_ Rin is back. He's smiling again and these smiles aren't fake; he pesters Bon like there was no tomorrow but they don't _really_ fight any more... Still... We will always miss _you_. It's just... not the same without..."

Sniffing for the last time, girl trembled but stood back from her crouching position. Unfortunately her knees - from being bend for quite some time in a funny position – gave from under her weight with sudden movement and she lost her footing. To her luck however a strong hand reached towards her shoulder and kept her upright before she could fall face down onto the ground.

"Shiemi-chan?"

Girl – Shiemi – turned abruptly towards her saviour and huffed immediately, face flushed and eyes narrowed.

"Amai-chan!" she raised her voice but barely. Her face was clearly red with embarrassment from her own clumsiness. Wind took that exact moment to once again ruffle her blonde hair, a-bit-too-long fringe partially obscuring her vision. "Don't scare me like that! It's not nice!"

Amaimon cocked his head to the side, lollipop rolling around his mouth. "I was here entire time..?" he said, not understanding girl's ire. He let his brows rise. "You told me to bring you here, so I did?"

Shiemi flushed with an even more vivid red colour, brushing black-nailed hand off her shoulder. "Yes, I asked you to bring me here" she repeated, now inhaling and speaking as if to a five-year-old child and not five-hundred-old demon. "But I don't remember telling you to watch over me... Huh..." a sudden thought crossed her mind and she momentarily paled. "How long are you here?"

Amaimon sighed completely bored and crossed hands behind his head, then continued to eye one of the trees that stood not-so-far away to finally shrug and roll his lollipop in mouth. "Since we came here. It's not as if I had anything better to do."

At that Shiemi blanched. It wasn't going to be one of _these_ days, was it? Even thinking about it made a goosebumps spread over her body. Trying hard to keep control over the situation, she breathed and sighed. "Oh, well... I'm finished now. I'm going to walk back home if you don't mind... so you're free to do whatever you want" she spoke calmly, inwardly sweating. She moved slowly ahead, not sparing her '_familiar_' a glance – that usually worked, when she just ignored him, but... "I'm not going to need your help today."

With a sigh of relief she walked off from Amaimon, strangely wondering about his silence. If there was one thing that she was afraid of – then it was the silence, because frankly he'd get the wildest ideas when silent. That left her with only once choice – which was to sneak off quietly and without triggering Amaimon's inner alarm.

She was almost half-way out the cemetery when she felt a pull on her throat – as if invisible chain was placed around it – and staggered back few steps. Now sweating even more, she reached with her hand towards the pull and choked.

"Where do you think, you're going? I'm not finished yet" stated Amaimon, curling his fist around the other end of the invisible link that hang between them. Feeling more and more emotions radiating from his human, he smirked – only his fangs showing. "Shiemi-chan, I'm bored. Let's go and play some..." and with that he tugged on chain to see Shiemi fall onto her bottom and groan painfully.

With few tears in her eyes, she rounded at demon. "But I'm not in the mood for your games! Not today... I have many things to do. Unlike you."

Amaimon frowned upon hearing harsh tone. "You asked something of me and now I will ask something of you."

Shiemi shook her head. "You can't force me to do anything and you know it, just as I won't force you to! It's not how things work around in Assiah, Amaimon."

His eye twitched. "What's the point of having you as my human then?" he deadpanned, his face going sober and strange light shining from his twitching eye. "I was having so much _fun_ before you stupidly summoned me!"

Crawling back, Shiemi blinked somehow entranced by pure evil aura that swirled around Amaimon in that one moment. She gulped, paling more. "Amai-mon... I..." she paused thinking their situation through, in truth their bond was really an accident – a stupid one at that, and it certainly wasn't her fault! "It's your fault!" After a moment she snapped, green eyes hard and finger ready to smear with blood small piece of paper. "If you didn't obey me then nothing would ever happened!"

By now Amaimon was furious. "You can't blame me!" he countered, crossing his arms and huffing. "I went away because I didn't want to be in that place, not with all of you. As if anything, it's your fault!" he added, childishly pointing finger at Shiemi. Upon seeing and hearing that she jumped to her feet and curled fists at sides.

"What?!" she shouted, red-faced. "It's not!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

"It is!"

"Is not!"

Amaimon – who unconsciously stepped closer to his human – now towered above her, wanting to beat some brain into her but couldn't. Not for as long as Okumura-kun was alive anyway. So he gridded his pointy teeth and snarled loudly, echo resonating through entire graveyard.

"You told me to go away!" It was truth, she said just that and nothing more nor less and he being slightly dazed from sudden change of scenery, ported away – not realising that he was summoned by a common human. That was the story, nothing fancy. And that's how they ended like this. "So it's your fault!"

Shiemi did not relent though, as if anything she kept on talking. "Oh really, mister demon king of earth?" she mocked him, breathing deeply, her soul burned. "How I was supposed to know that I summoned you of all demons on the world? You kept on popping out from time to time anyway, so it wasn't strange when it happened... A-and you... you... Afterwards... You actually dared to bound me to yourself too! That's just sick! What kind of a demon does that?"

"Well, I won't let any human have his hands on me" Amaimon concluded, straightening and frowning down his nose. "At first I wanted to kill you..." Shiemi gasped, shuddering angrily. "But after talk with brother I understood that you're not worth the trouble, still I couldn't just let you walk away as if nothing happened, because it did..." he added, now raising his right hand into the air. In _Assiah_ there was nothing between them but if one glanced into mirror-reflection of that world - _into Gehenna_ – then would see a thick chain tied around Amaimon's palm which stretched towards a heavy looking collar that was clasped around Shiemi's throat. "No human will be a God of me."

Shiemi at that faltered a bit, knowing that she really couldn't win with a demon king. So she did what she always did. Pouting, she looked down on her feet. "What do you have in mind then?"

By that Amaimon smiled, lollipop rolling around and then took it out with a slight pop. Oh he was enjoying himself a bit too much with his human. "Some fun of course!" he mentioned, smacking his lips loudly. Shiemi at that sighed, her shoulders slumping a bit more – it seemed she was used to that by now.

"Mephiland? _Again_?" she groaned inwardly. To think there were times when she was excited to visit the place.

Amaimon nodded slightly. "Of course! Where can we have more fun than there?" he pondered, for a second thinking hard. Then he brushed it off and clasped his hand onto Shiemi's shoulder. Lollipop popped once more into mouth, he cheered like a five-year-old. "To Mephiland!" and both of them disappeared in a blink.

A lone two-tailed cat shook his head in worry upon seeing thus situation, unlike his companion with polka-dotted bow-tie who smiled, excitedly waving tail around.

...

Day held a promise of a quite warm upcoming days. Sun already shone brightly and blue sky was clear as ever but around Old Boy's Dormitory a chilly cloud of misery still hang mercilessly. Yes, there was that specific stillness around the place, eerie silence not interrupted even by a chirp of a bird.

Sometime later in a room 602, Rin Okumura sat quietly staring at one particular thing in his hand. His blue eyes kept on sliding along a thing that was his _past_ and _future_.

Cracked surface however stood out a way too much.

Sighing, Rin softly slid his hand along once perfect blade, now useless and chipped. To truth be told, he haven't reached for it in _months_. As the Kurikara was destroyed once again, there wasn't any way to restore it to it's previous glory. Well, so it seemed back then. For months he'd have to learn and practice – _alone_ – to control his flames.

It was a very difficult time for him, especially with Yukio's death.

Reminiscing few past months, Rin clutched the blade in hand. So, yeah... It was a fucking nightmare, those past months. Even now he could barely believe that he didn't end up like his twin in the first place, because like he said before: _there was no Rin if there's no Yukio_ who was taken from him in a blink of an eye.

How would anybody feel if they woke up one day to see a pair of cracked glasses sitting silently in a chair that should be occupied by the one person that was always by one's side?

_Devastated_.

And that's how he felt at first. Of course he still remembers - clear as a day - the pain and the tears that just couldn't stop coming. Every single time he'd do something or say, he'd forget himself - unconsciously look behind him, as if to ire Yukio to his pleasure – and then pause, for a very long time until reality would slap him in the face, to remind him that his twin was gone.

Week later, oh how fucking terrible the funeral was – even now cold shivers ran down his back upon remembering it. There were tears, so many fucking tears. And that photo of Yukio's smiling face staring back at all of them and he couldn't... he _couldn't_... Only afterwards, when everybody finally left him alone, he let go – he wailed and screamed out all his hurt and rage. But even then, slouched above the gravestone of his twin, he couldn't stop that _burning_ inside him. It wasn't a catharsis but something shifted in his perception of reality back then, some words he heard decade before floated back to him and he stood up a different man.

That was the day when he snapped, when he realised that everything Yukio made him feel was pain and sadness. And he hated it, that hopelessness. So throwing angrily his bouquet in a general direction of a gravestone with disdain, he walked away – his back stiff, his resolve strong as ever.

Back in his dormitory - presently - as Rin exhaled deeply looking around their room, he felt so small and stupid. Gone was the stuff Yukio used, gone were his books, his uniforms... Shit, well everything. Because in his greatest moment of weakness he couldn't even stand_ the view_ of his twin's belongings and he simply packed everything and threw away. It wasn't as if Yukio was going to come back for it anyway. Well, crud. Rin chuckled bitterly under nose, his eyes now resting over empty opposite bed.

Yukio was going to kill him once he'd wake, that was for sure.

Groaning some, he leaned back onto his bed and lied down. After few seconds he raised his hand with Kurikara in it. The blade was destroyed completely and that was a fact, but even so Mephisto - _why after so many months?_ – insisted to bring it to him, for whatever reason. Maybe he found a way to fix it?

Nah, impossible! Huffing, he actually sat back and glanced at his watch. It said it was sometime near dinner time. With a very tired sigh he neatly secured the blade in the red cloth before slipping it over his shoulder. Messing his hair some, he reached for his – _or rather Yukio's old _- Exorcist keys and turned one of it inside his room's lock.

When he stepped through doors, he found himself in a long corridors of True Cross Academy. Of course, he shouldn't be using the keys so recklessly but he didn't care really. Besides before he actually stepped out his room, he checked if there was anybody in a corridor, so... Yeah, he was clear.

Fiddling with closing a lock for some time, _after_ he managed to finally shut it he moved ahead towards principal's office – where Mephisto was waiting for him.

As he walked through corridors of his day school, he kept on pondering over the meaning of Mephisto's order. What would that old geezer do with it anyway? If he remembered correctly – his sword's blade was made of a very rare, consecrated metal that's not available nowhere in the entire world, so... The question stood, what Mephisto needed his Kurikara for?

Not surprisingly though when he turned around a corner – _very recklessly on his side_ – his thoughts were cut short by a body of a girl that _he_ practically slammed into.

Not thinking much, as he stumbled back, he snarled towards the girl. "Watch how you're walking?!"

The girl seemed unfazed by him though, as she stood still and only eyed him up and down. Then she sighed – _as if disappointed_ – and pushed up her cat-like glasses. A move that stroke a cord in Rin – being weirdly familiar. "So you're Rin Okumura, huh?" she spoke deliberately her glasses shining.

Rin – still somehow caught off-guard – curled his fists but balked. "My fame is preceding me I see" he said smirking afterwards. "Unlike yours...?"

The girl crossed her arms over her small chest. "Kyoko" she acknowledged, lips pursed.

"Kyoko-chan!" Rin instantly jumped towards her, smiling and trying – _really hard_ – to look manly. But she didn't look impressed at all, maybe wondering about his mental health a bit but nothing more, really. "That's really pretty name!"

Girl – Kyoko – sweatdropped little, before keeping her calm stance. "Thank you" she nodded and then side-stepped Rin, apparently continuing on her way.

Unbeknown to her however – when their arms brushed – a very strange vibe spread along Rin's limb, at which his eyes widened. Not only that but a warm, comforting flutter made his soul sing, as if it recognized his own. To truth be told he was grounded on the spot, trying to catch as much details of that girl as he could.

She... _it_ felt familiar. As if he felt it before, a deja vu sorts of? Curious thing was that even his link - _he shared with Yukio_ - trembled in anticipation. What does that meant? Gulping, Rin needed to snap back to the real world and when it happened he blinked. Once, twice. Before he took off in a wild run towards Mephisto's office.

...

Minutes later, when Rin finally reached the corridor with headmaster's office – he let out a deep breath, feeling a bit winded. Slowing down, he continued on his way over to the doors, walking past few students that were probably on theirs way to clubs they belonged into.

Sighing some more, he frowned – thinking hard about the strange occurrence from before. That glasses-wearing girl... when she side-stepped him... what was that stirring inside him? Was that... A sudden thought popped up in his mind, practically throwing him onto his knees – because no, it couldn't be, could it?

A true love? A soulmate!

Gulping happily, stars instead of eyes – Rin lost himself for a second over there. He imagined the girl... What was her name again? Kyoko? Yes, that was it – Kyoko. He imagined _Kyoko_ smiling towards him softly, her cheeks rosy and eyes closed happily. Her short bouncy hair falling over her shoulders lightly, fringe soon following with every movement of her supple body. KYAAAAA! She was so cute, Rin almost fainted from all the cuteness but then...

Her face morphed – _dispersed_ – into Yukio's, still smiling and all but unlike the girl - only tips of Yukio's ears were flushed, a very slight patch of pink over his nose...

Well that for sure slapped Rin back to earth. Terrified of the vision he just saw, he panted – sweatdropping – at his own imagination. Before he could actually start his inner ranting, he heard two voices talking from behind principal's office doors – whom he stood before, for God knew how long now.

Flush he had on his face slowly faded, as he found the conversation quite interesting. To catch more details of it he pressed his ear towards wooden door.

On the other side of them chat went on.

"You owe me 1713.4550 Yen for that, Kirigakure-sensei" said Mephisto, slouching in his armchair with a sly look attached to his face. He looked as if he waited for this talk to happen for a long time and now was enjoying himself as much as he could. "You lost, just like I said you would."

Red-haired, busty woman in a very skimpy outfit glowered under her nose, crossing arms. "I was close enough" she answered, narrowing her eyes. "Ye won by two months – only, Pheles-san."

Mephisto laughed, his façade changing in a blink. "Like I said before, I knew that our dear half-demon won't loose control of his flames for a long time. I'm glad that he managed to do that for as long as he did" a strange light shone from his eye then and he smirked. "I need to thank him for that once he gets here."

Upon hearing this Shura frowned, twisting her lip some. "And what do ye wanna achieve by doing so?"

Mephisto shrugged nonchalantly at that. "Just entertain myself."

With an even deeper frown, Shura continued. "What's been yer _true plan_ for Okumura-kun and his twin, Mephisto?"

He cocked his head nonchalantly. "I think you know" but as if to deny it she shook her head, closing eyes. "Ne, Shura-san do you miss Yukio-kun?"

A tremble went down hers spine at sudden change of topic, she didn't move an inch however. Opening one eye, she stared at Mephisto curiously. "Where did that come from?"

"Just wondering" he answered honestly, his smile not thinking about ever coming down from his face. "Even though he's healing there's not any assurance that you're going to see him in your _lifetime_ again, is there?"

Shura sighed, her body language changing. Now she let her arms fall limply to her sides, staring openly at him. "Ye, I realise that. But as long as he comes out healthy and all, I'm fine with it..." after saying these words she turned around, her back facing Mephisto. "Besides he's not the only one that I miss..." her words trembled but just little. "There's a lot of people that keep me going. Scaredy-cat was one of them – that's for sure, but not the only one."

Ending their little chatter, Shura then walked ahead – apparently to end their little chat.

"It must really piss you off to know that while you're _getting older_, Okumura-kun might be the only one that might welcome back Yukio-kun once he wakes up."

Upon those words Shura halted, her hand on the doorknob but with a sigh she tipped her head down. "There's still many years ahead of me and one of those years I _will_ kick Yukio's ass for all troubles he got us into."

Barely few second later a click echoed in a corridor and a loud thump followed with a very painful groans afterwards. Shura stood still for a moment before her mind processed the view ahead of her. With each passing second a more and more visible vein appeared on her forehead.

Rin on the other hand kept on caressing his bumped head, his tail uncurling from around his torso and popping out from collar.

"Shit!" he cried out, looking frantically around – in hopes nobody saw that. With tears in corners of his eyes, he glared at his older companion. "Why not warn when you're getting out?!"

Shura chuckled darkly, leaning down towards Rin. A very dark aura radiating around her. "Do ye know..?" she stated dangerously. "That eavesdropping is not healthy? One might get hurt when caught red-handed."

At that Rin smiled – or rather tried to. Playing it off, he laughed aloud – one hand waving playfully. "I happened to come by just now..."

Shura however did not believe him, standing upright and sighing. "Whatever" she shrugged the matter off and continued to step over stunned Rin. When she was already on the corridor, she walked away nonchalantly. However she couldn't help but to throw a sly, "Rin-kun, shut yer mouth or ye gonna catch a fly..." over her shoulder.

Rin's senses kicked in right then and he jumped to his feet, his tail now completely wiggling it's way out from under shirt to flail around.

"Shura-san!" he shouted but upon seeing her disappearing figure, he resigned from trying to get her attention. Actually that reminded him of the reason why he came over there in the first place. With a sweep of his tail he jumped and scrambled into headmaster's office, securely shutting the doors behind him.

With a sweatdrop he sighed, hoping that nobody saw his tail.

"It's nice of you to drop in, Okumura-kun" welcomed Mephisto, smiling. His hands curled together while he waited for Rin to acknowledge his presence – which he did with a quick turn and frown. "I believe you're here to deliver your sword..."

At that exact moment Rin sapped angrily and stepped closer towards his forever-enemy. He'd never call Mephisto a friend, not in a million years. "Yeah, I came here for that..." he reached back and slipped Kurikara from his shoulders. He threw it unceremoniously on a desk with a loud thump. "You found a way to fix it then?"

Mephisto eyed the heavy sword before his eyes glanced back at teen. "You may say that."

"Huh?" Rin's mouth hang open, he was very surprised to hear that. "But..." he wondered aloud, blinking. "But I've heard the metal it was made off is impossible to get... Well, more like non-existent anymore." His brows furrowed, curiosity eating at him. "Then how do you want to repair it, clown?"

Mephisto smiled, his slanted eyes narrowing a bit. By now, he was smiling quite devilishly. "You heard good" he agreed simply but then stated just as clearly as a day, "However you don't need such strong material anymore."

"What do ye mean by that?"

"I mean that we're going to replace your blade" Mephisto finally announced, his lip curling even more. "I'll even send our best Exorcists to deliver Kurikara to one old acquaintance of mine, who's happen to be our best shot in supplying our forces."

Rin chuckled and then tsked some, he narrowed his eyes at his companion. "On my ears it sounds more like someone's in your debt... I always knew you're a freak... But to that level, it's beyond me" he mumbled under nose but immediately added much louder, "How old is that acquaintance of yours? Over ninety?"

"No, just bordering his 60s."

Rin frowned blinking. "That's unusual."

Mephisto clucked his tongue, his eyes still watching every move of his pupil. "If that's all..."

But teen had different idea as he suddenly lit up – _a light bulb idea?_ - and he looked super-over-hyper. "Oi, do you know a young girl – _I think she's new here_ – about this height, very slim, small breasts but with this super-cute face with big, round glasses?"

"Huh?" answered over-consciously Mephisto and blinked. However his hands stilled for a second and his eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. "What girl that might be, Okumura-kun?" he played along.

Rin never spotted a lie nor slight divergence from truth. "Ugh... I don't really know her full name. Just – Kyoko" he declared, smiling.

"Really now?" piped in – _now very interested_ – Mephisto, his fingers twiddling together. "You spoke with her?"

At that Rin pointed his finger victoriously at his headmaster's face. "Ha! So you _do_ know her!"

Mephisto only sighed, as if Rin was dumber than he thought he was. So yeah in reality older Okumura was slightly more oblivious to some things than his younger counterpart.

"Of course I know her" he answered after awhile. "She's my student, also the new Senior Prefect of this Academy – Nakamura Kyoko her name is if I remember correctly." By now he wondered what was going on in Rin's head. "It would be impossible if I didn't know who's a Senior Prefect of my own Academy, now would it?"

Rin's head bobbed with agreement. "Yeah, that makes sense. But still, I haven't seen her around before so she must be new or something..."

"Maybe she is, or maybe you're just too blindly following Yukio to care about other people."

"Wha-" Rin couldn't stop his tail from swashing angrily. "W-what's _that_ supposed to mean, clown?!"

Mephisto chuckled under his nose, cryptic as ever. Looking from a corner of his eye, he also couldn't stop his lips from curling into a smirk. "Well, you're all '_Yukio this, Yukio that_' nowadays. If I didn't know better I would say that is early stage of a brocon."

Mortified by Mephisto's speech, Rin turned first pale then blue and finally settled with a pale-pink flush over his nose and cheeks. So yeah, he might've been captivated by his brother's '_state_' but it was normal to want and see his sibling, wasn't it?

"What are you-! D-don't twist facts, you stupid clown! Leave mine and Yukio's life out of your moe-moe otaku fetishes!"

"I never said that you _are_ a brocon, Okumura-kun."

Rin's flailing about slowed down, until he stopped completely. Now with a tiny flush over his cheeks, he sighed. "I hope you mean it."

"Of course... however" Mephisto checked his big, pink-purple wrist-watch "as much as I want to continue our little _tête-à-tête_, you need to go now, Okumura-kun. I have important guest to talk with, if you don't mind then..." he nodded towards doors – very politely – and Rin frowned, crossing arms.

"Oh-kay then" Rin turned on heel, his tail swinging... and he stopped, sweatdropping. Crookedly he turned side-ways towards Mephisto – once again mortified by what he needed to do. "Ugh... Can you turn around for a second?"

Mephisto narrowed his eyes, pouting. "Why should I?"

"U-uh... I need to..." Rin motioned to his tail and gulped. As an answer he got a cheeky grin and tilt of a head to the side.

"Go ahead then, I won't bite you."

"Y-yeah b-but..." Rin shuddered, turning around and slowly dropping his jacket to the ground. "It is creepy as fuck" he muttered, gulping once more and reaching for buttons of his shirt. Overall, his embarrassing situation ended quickly, as he couldn't stand burning sensation of Mephisto's eyes on his back. With a last tuck of his shirt's collar, he glowered. "Creepy ass-clown..." and with that stormed out, not looking back once.

Smirk adorned Mephisto's face while he mulled over interesting events of to-day. There was a lot of going on, that was for sure. And it still wasn't everything yet, even more was going to happen and pretty soon as well.

He smiled his usual smile awaiting his guest.

Not long time after a knock echoed on doors and they slid open.

He grinned upon seeing well-known by him bushy head and those cat-like glasses.

"You finally came to see me, I thought you forgot about our meeting."

Girl inhaled, crossing her arms. Her bushy shoulder-length hair bounced with her every step, stance defensible as ever. Her slim hand then pushed higher the glasses onto bridge of her nose, one mole from right cheek staring back at Mephisto. When she spoke there was mock-tone to her voice but no malice whatsoever, it even seemed she was used to talking back to him like that for a long, long time now.

"Well, how could I forget" she said, eyes point-blank on Mephisto's face. "_Uncle_."


	6. Arc1 Alone ch4

**Title**: Hellspawn  
**Chapter**: 6/?  
**Characters**: Rin, Mephisto,  
**Genre**: Fluff, some-angst, (insert genre here)  
**Summary**: "_He wasn't going to think that his twin looked cute, no, nope._"  
**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.  
**Warnings**: _No beta'd, etc. anime!ver, brocon, start RinYuki._

**A/N**: I did it, I actually feel proud right now. Last chapter of Arc 1: Alone. Feel free to share your thoughts or even ideas. Thank you for following, favouring and commenting! Ja nee!

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In the mocking darkness surrounding Okumura Rin, he sighed loudly – his eyes pinned onto that daunting crystal. It was few months since he learned the truth, or as much as he could get of it. Of course he was happy and all, Yukio was alive after all yet some very unpleasant thought kept nagging him at the back of his head.

Yukio was trapped and there was no omissing that fact in any way.

With days passing on, some mornings changing too quickly into evenings, hours literally flying away – there was that stupid hopelessness he felt every time he'd walk out that chamber, his back turning on his twin.

Silly bond he shared with Yukio seemed even more trivial now that he thought about it. Was he really that naïve to think it would change anything? Well, to be honest, he did actually. He kept on holding onto it even now, gazing somehow listlessly at goddamn prison his brother was in.

Oh, there was also a fact that he'd keep on rambling about everything and nothing while he felt like it. The first time he'd get his visit, he couldn't stop himself from talking – as if a switch that was turned 'off' came back to life after keeping everything inside for too long. It was a dame that gave away under the pressure of emotions and burdens and... and... life itself and he just needed to talk.

He never got any answer back though. No smartass – way too intelligent – comeback at his childish antics, just... silence.

Barely a presence of his twins soul, drifting on and about around him.

But it was enough for Rin.

At least for some time.

"...and you know what? I'm getting tired of this one-sided conversations I have with you" he spoke, eyes narrowing at irritating pieces of crystal that surrounded his twin. He'd really give everything - even his soul - to hear even one-worded reply; but tough luck, Yukio's light only shone silently in the chamber, it's rays shading lightly Rin's face. Fussing a bit, he huffed and changed his sitting position – his legs spread widely while his hands kept him upright. "Ne, four-eyes" he snipped, brows furrowing. "Get your priorities straight and wake up already!"

When once again he haven't got any kind of answer he jumped to his feet grumpily. Hands clenching and unclenching he calmed before speaking again, brushing hand trough his bluish hair.

"Ye know what? I've passed this year tests" he said proudly, smirking to himself. "I didn't even need your help with them" at that he crossed him arms and closed eyes, contemplating his achievement in a moment of pride.

"Of course you did. I think even Amaimon could reach that barely-minimum scores to pass them though" piped in Mephisto, appearing from nowhere – apparently - and smirking. As it happened he heard the little comment young Okumura just made and simply couldn't resist to agitate him some. And it worked like a charm.

Rin snapped back to reality and turned clearly annoyed towards their visitor. "That was a low blow even for you fluff-clown" he barked, now in full-pissed mode. If only looks could kill...

Mephisto shrugged it off nonchalantly, like he always did. From between his smirking mouth, tongue darted outside and licked his lips. "Ne, Rin-kun I have a new toy for you" he said, cleverly snapping his fingers together and materializing a well-known red material with a string around it.

Upon seeing that Rin temporarily forgot what got a rise out from him and concentrated over looking at his Kurikara that Mephisto held in hand. "You managed to fix it?" he didn't believe it, yet he scrambled towards his mentor in a nano-second. His hands itched to touch it, to see the new blade. He almost could feel blood in his veins sing from excitement.

Mephisto however smirked some more, holding Kurikara up above his own head – a way too far away for young esquire to reach it.

Rin of course being his - sometime a bit dimwitted - self, jumped upwards trying to get it. "What the hell? Why don't you just give it to me?" he rambled, jumping around more.

The image in itself was too funny for Mephisto and he laughed, his free hand covering his mouth. "You don't realise how cute you look right now, Rin-kun" he managed and stunned young Okumura – who stopped immediately his advances and stuttered, blushing slightly.

"Yer acting funny lately, clown!" he stepped back from Mephisto, who kept on staring him down. That unnerved him even more. "What's the point of coming here with my Kurikara if you're not willing to give it back?!"

At that Mephisto chuckled some and slightly towered over clearly frustrated boy. It was interesting to see him acting like some shy ten-year-old when he never actually did anything, now did he? "I am willing as you said but I never heard please" he mocked him, once again licking his lips.

Rin gulped, while sweating suddenly. "P-please, clown?" he stuttered from between his chattering teeth. God, he felt strange with Mephisto looming over him like some leech trying to suck the life out of him.

"Good try" he got as an answer and Mephisto's hand lowered, holding sword for him to take.

At that point in time, Rin - still sweating, even more now - glanced between the sword and Mephisto - a few times - before he acted and slowly reached for it. When his palms however attached themselves to his oh-so-precious sword he felt suddenly pull of the gravity try to suck him back down. Before he knew it, his face was centimetres from Mephisto's laughing one. Ah, there came also ache in his armpits and he risked a glance towards his feet.

Yep, he was definitely dangling like a prick.

Mephisto found their situation more than hilarious but figured he wanted to torment boy even some more and to achieve that he started to move his arm - completely unfazed by weight or anything - up and down. Rin's sights on the other hand kept on changing between Mephisto's face and his chest and felt his silent rage slowly resurface. Fortunately before that boil would meet it's peek he found himself being sprawled on his hurting backside with sword lying not too far away from him.

"Now that was a good exercise for me, we should do it more often."

Rin blanched but also winced painfully when he stood up, Kurikara in one hand, other on his back. "Your jokes aren't funny."

"They are to me" answered back Mephisto, now smiling Cheshire-cat smile. "Open your present, Okumura-kun."

"It's not a present if it was mine in the first place" remarked Rin, sending a glare towards his mentor and then continuing on sliding red material off his sword. Handle and sheathe were exactly as he remembered them. He delicately opened the sheathe and took out his new Kurikara. Bluish light reflected on a perfectly made blade in all it's glory. "I-it's like new... How do you managed to do that?" he asked with awe, he really didn't think he was going to see his blade to be of use any time again, if ever.

Mephisto nodded to himself, proudly. "I told you I have an acquaintance of mine..." he cleared his throat, changing the subject smoothly. "Try it."

Well, he didn't have to repeat it twice to Rin. Without beating an eye lash, he moved the blade both directions, feeling the smoothness of it cutting through air. His sword felt lighter, more agile and by that somewhat easier to follow after. A loud cough suddenly dragged him back to the matter at hand and the handle slipped through his fingers, sword clacking to the ground.

Furiously he turned at his spectator and fumed. "You scared me half to death, fluff-clown!"

At that Mephisto sighed, now somehow annoyed by youngster antics. "I've asked you to try it, didn't I?"

Slightly dumbfounded by request, he spluttered. "I just did..."

"Not like that, I've asked you to try it with your flames on" explained simply Mephisto. Really though, Rin could be such a handful at times.

Upon hearing such words, Rin stiffened in embarrassment but played it off, shrugging and laughing ironically out loud. "Of course! I knew it, I was gonna to!"

And with that his hand shot towards his Kurikara. Once he got his grip on it, he concentrated. His flames, they were little tricky buggers if he needed to say it for himself. He wasn't entirely sure how he managed to call them on or off, but he figured as much that they were linked to his emotions. As much as he remembered his flames would show up every time some very strong emotion would strike him - be it rage, fury, sadness, you name it. Fuck he even caught himself once on fire when jacking off, but it wasn't that anybody would know and besides that one accident happened way before his powers were unsealed from Kurikara.

However right now with Mephisto staring at him with his slanted eyes, so intently he felt more uncomfortable than angry. And he needed angry, or sad, or... He sighed and only then realised that he was almost burning holes into his new blade with his eyes. Frowning a bit, he shook his head and closed them.

He needed to reach towards that thin line between himself and a demon inside. It wasn't easy so-to-speak and he found it really tiring to do when not under any pressure, and aside from Mephisto there was no danger nor any near-death situation looming over him, so he found his awakening a bit more challenging than most times.

Seconds passed but he couldn't reach it, he felt the power humming under his skin yet it was still so far away to grasp.

Trying once more, his hands clutched his sword more. He wasn't to give up, not when he was so close. And just as he finally brushed against that barrier, when he walked past it he felt something tug at his pinky so strongly he was almost sucked into it.

Before he came back to awareness, he realised a few things. Firstly - he was engulfed in his blue flames - secondly - his sword didn't melt away - thirdly - his pinky felt like falling off, probably to cut out blood-circulation - and lastly - a loud crunch-sound filled the chamber. In an instant his body turned around as in a faze and he saw a huge crack appearing in a crystal that held Yukio.

As he turned around to ask Mephisto what's happening, he only found older demon standing stoically, completely impassive of the happening. Did that meant Yukio was waking up? At such thought his heart beaten stronger, blood flew faster in veins. When another crack sounded, he stared at the strange occurrence half-mortified and half-mesmerised.

The crack kept on getting bigger, smaller veins of it slowly darting around whole crystal and just as Rin thought there was no more space for them to spread he felt another tug on his little finger and hissed from sudden pain.

"Wha-"

Kurikara once again clashed to the ground and Rin found himself clutching his hurting hand into his free one. The pain was radiating from his finger, leisurely spreading upwards.

"Mephi-!" he shouted, enveloped in his flames but didn't get any answer as entire world completely shattered around him in a black and blue.

Sharp crystals shot out in an imitation of an explosion, catching Rin and Mephisto on it's trajectories. Slim body of Okumura Yukio however didn't float nor stayed put by vines that seemingly kept him upward but slumped with a loud - probably painful - thud onto dark ground.

Whole situation took Rin five seconds before he sprung into action, jumping towards his twin with his flames disappearing bit by bit. Not caring about stings of pain coming from fresh wounds, Rin gathered Yukio's limp head into his hands and caressed it lovingly, while at the same time he was inwardly loosing it.

"Y-Yukio!" he shouted, moving his twins soaked - where did the water came from? - head between his palms. "YUKIO!" he repeated himself, letting his hands roam freely if not somewhat shyly over his twins face, arms and chest. But, once he put his head over the heart he gently breathed out, Yukio's heartbeat was strong. And just like that, he happily looked into his twins sleeping face and couldn't resist but touch their foreheads together and hug limp body to himself.

His little bubble of joy was pierced however by loud cough and a snide comment.

"I might just take back my statement about you not being a brocon."

Rin didn't care though but still felt his cheeks get warm, too warm. With a flustered face he snapped back. Any consequences be damned. "I don't give a shit what you think. I'm just happy that... he's back. Yukio's back."

And yes, said boy slept soundly in Rin's arms, completely unaware of the outside world or anything that happened in the last few months. As if to confirm his condition, Yukio picked that exact moment to sigh sleepily and turn a bit more towards warmness that surrounded his exhausted body.

Rin at that felt suddenly self-concious, especially when Yukio's head nested at the crook of his neck. That one movement plus that prying eyes of Mephisto took all to make him fluster over the little fact of touching his twin (even if just to keep him warm).

Sudden chillness of the room started easily to seep through bodies. Rin who was acting on pure adrenalin now felt so cold, freezing almost. On the other side stood Mephisto, staring two boys down, thinking. When he finally figured whatever he was getting over, his eyes shone devilishly and he chuckled.

"Now that I see two of you actually are inseparable, I think it's as good start to our little training session as ever. Two of you, together, alone. Yes, I think it's going to be perfect."

There was muttering of which Rin couldn't catch much and he frowned.

"Ne, Rin-kun?" asked Mephisto, his pointed teeth coming to light. "Do you want to actually become an older brother?"

Rin sputtered. "W-what's that supposed to mean, fluff-clown?! I _am_ an older brother!"

Mephisto just chuckled again this time though he crossed his arms, oh how good it felt to bite into boy's pride. "I know you always wanted to be looked upon like Okumura-sensei..." he paused so every word could successively sink in. "Well, I'll get you have a chance at being one then. I think it will do you good since you're more in-tune with your inner demon than Yukio over there is."

Rin's hands subconsciously tightened around Yukio's form. "What d-do you mean?"

"I mean" Mephisto continued his little speech, deliberately coming down towards two Okumura boys, one sprawled under the other. "That since school is over, Okumura-sensei awakened, and you apparently know what you're doing with your flames; then it's time to start your second trial."

"Second? Trial..!" Rin snapped. "How many trial's there is for me..?!"

Mephisto laughed and then - to Rin's utmost horror - ruffled his hair. "Not many, but for now I believe you're going to be Okumura-sensei for Yukio and not the other way around... Well, at least for some time." He then patted the boy on his head, ignoring a very loud growl that was aimed at him. "Well, off you go for now then, I'll get in touch with you when he's fully awake." And with a last pat he smirked, his umbrella coming to hang above their heads, moving in a circle motion. "Eins, zwei, drei..."

"H-hey-?!"

However Rin's sudden outrage was cut short by familiar - by now – shift of perspectives and world morphing before his own two eyes. Well, he got accustomed to the strange motions by now, a months to go by this - and only this - way to visit Yukio made him somehow resistant to constant flip-and-flopping of contents of his stomach.

Yet even now, he kept on thinking that those spinning motions Mephisto did for his own twisted way of pleasuring himself just to see him heave on the first time he felt them.

The best way to avoid it was to close his eyes, and he compiled by doing so just the second he felt himself being tossed into Assiah. It was uncomfortable at first with his hands clutching at Yukio, something digging painfully into his side and feeling his backside once again being thrown to the ground, but beyond these trivial things he felt also relieved when first gust of warm wind swept his slightly sweaty hair into air.

With a loud, aggravated inhale he finally opened his eyes and looked around afterwards. Mephisto threw them just onto their Old Boy's Dormitories doorstep so-to-speak. Silent sun rays fell over their bodies and Rin was forced to squint his eyes from too much brightness, god his eyes burned.

Grunting a bit, he managed to change his position and have a good look over his twin.

Yukio was still sleeping soundly, his chest moving up and down in a regular breaths. And honestly that was everything Rin needed to feel happy right now, and just like that he let himself step into big-brother role easily. Scrambling some, he reached towards his twin to pick him up but only then realised that something was still digging into his side and he glanced back at bothering him thing.

He was kinda surprised that it was his Kurikara, fully clothed in red material, ready to slip onto shoulder as he did in an instant. Just then he realised that with everything that went in Mephisto's pocket dimension, he completely forgot about it. Still he wasn't going to admit it to himself but all he had his mind on was Yukio.

Sighing somewhat, he figured that with Kurikara resting on his shoulders he was ready to step forward and act his role, which he should act from the beginning but never really managed. With steady hands, he lifted Yukio's body into his arms and chanced a look at his face, now rolling around to rest at his chest – just above where his heart was, and he smiled shakily.

Rin wasn't exactly sure what was going on with him, why was he acting so strangely around Yukio? It's not as if he was a brocon, no. He wasn't and he was certain of that but still he caught himself smiling at Yukio's peaceful face upon which sun rays fell so naturally, lighting his always stuck-up face some.

He wasn't going to think that his twin looked cute, no, nope.

But he found himself thinking so anyway because Yukio did look cute. Without his glasses and those always worried-about-you expression upon his cheek, he looked exactly like the kid he used to be when they were younger.

With a sigh escaping him, Rin furrowed his brows in a silent contemplating. "What I'm gonna do with you now?" he asked himself well-knowing he's not going to get any answer. After while though, after another gust of wind ruffled his hair, he finally loosened up some and smiled, eyes locking on their place. "Well, I can just as well get inside and get you comfortable..." he mumbled, taking his first step.

He never knew that he was just nearing walking into completely new life that was waiting ahead for him and Yukio. Life of a boy who would soon enough fall in love with a last person he'd think he would (or should).


	7. Arc2 To return ch1

**Title**: Hellspawn  
**Chapter**: 7/?  
**Characters**: Rin, Yukio, Kuro,  
**Genre**: Fluff, some-angst, (insert genre here)  
**Summary**: "_It was such ironic thing that he'd give them back to him after everything they went through._"  
**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.  
**Warnings**: _No beta'd, etc. anime!ver, brocon, start RinYukio._

**A/N**: _**Act 2. "To return"**__ now officially started! Yukio is finally awake but not happy! Congrats to me (yeah!) Let's only hope I'll manage to write some fluff – at all – because it's not my strong side. Thank you everyone for reading, keep happy and stronk! Jaa ne! ps. after re-reading I figured that my story is one massive clusterfuck... but I wouldn't have it any other way ( ˘ ³˘)❤  
_

* * *

Bigger hand of the clock jumped over neatly carved in number six thus was closely followed by loud sniffing that resonated in the air. In a large kitchen situated in Old Male Dormitory, Rin sat by the table – his face flushed, streams of tears flowing down his face – and read one of his favourite mangas or rather the latest volume that was just published.

Anyone from the outside would think it to be freakishly strange to see a soon-to-be-grown-ass-man wailing over such trifle thing like a manga, however if the said person knew black-haired male enough then it wouldn't be anything surprising to find him in a such state.

However in all honesty, Okumura Rin could be as well named Mr. Over-sensitive and it wouldn't be too far from truth.

As for the moment he clutched half-soaked volume a bit more, shaking his head drastically.

"NO! NO-O-O! IT CAN'T END LIKE THAT!" he deadpanned, finally closing his magazine and leaving it on the table. After taking few calming breaths he slowly sighed (_for the last time_) as if in defeat – his shoulders slumped - and chuckled a bit darkly, at the same time lazily wiping his face with his sleeve. "I thought it was supposed to be a happy end!" he remarked, somehow pouting while glancing at innocent book. "But it wasn't happy at all" he added grumpily and leaned into his chair. "In the end they parted their ways... Went living their own dreams..."

Rin frowned at his own words, all feelings were so confusing. It was a mere book – with nice pictures and all – but even though, somehow it etched itself in his heart, his emotions. As if he didn't have enough problems of his own, right?

When his eye caught a glimpse of a clock, he exhaled – this time his thoughts drifting towards the person he was so confused about, Yukio. So far, two days and no difference in him. It was alarming to see his brother fine, _breathing_ but completely still and asleep.

_Like a sleeping beauty_, Mephisto told him over the mobile just yesterday. Upon reminding himself about that detail, Rin's eyebrow twitched nervously. Because like seriously? Did Mephisto lived to get under his skin and feed him his cryptic crap every day?

_Maybe a kiss would wake the beauty..._

Like in a fairytale? Goddamn, Rin suddenly shivered when found his eyes snapping open (_when did he closed them in the first place?_) and whimpered inwardly because of his own thoughts. Straightening in his chair, he shook his messy head, eyes dead-on window.

He was such a mess, he felt it in his bones. Yet he couldn't do anything about it, mainly because he never had to. There was always Yukio, his younger brother that would come over – pat a seat next to him – and do the thing – fix him up, mentally and physically. It was one of the thing that family do regardless the situation, it was that speck of love he never wanted to lose. The speck of love he never _believed_ _would_ actually _disappear_ – but it did and he crumbled.

Now pieces of him were everywhere, scattered – but it wasn't too late, there was still time to stick them all back together. Even though... he would be flawed forever, never really the same. But on the other hand, who would? Things that happen change people, and Rin was one of the many victims of the fate.

"_Rin! Rin!_"

Rin jumped in his seat hearing a well-known sound of Kuro's speech. However he glared towards the two-tailed cat, and grumbled. "What is it?"

Kuro - as always - completely ignored Rin's cold shoulder and jumped on a table, situating himself next to openly-left-behind volume. "_What are we having for dinner today?_" he asked, smiling in his own way.

At that Rin could only sigh. There were many things going in Kuro's head but mostly it was all about food, not that he minded. "Uh... I dunno. What would you want?" he asked his familiar and tried to sniff not-to-loudly but of course Kuro must've took a notice of it.

"_Rin..._" started cat, his head cocking to the side in sympathy. "_You were crying, why?_"

Rin shrugged it off, brushing hand through air. "Nothing, really. Don't worry."

"_But Rin..._"

"Kuro, no."

"_Rin?_"

"Just let it go."

Cat sith however didn't even pretend to listen to his master, but pressed on. "_It's Yukio, isn't it?_"

At that Rin jumped violently from his chair which resulted in toppling it over. One could easily spot that he wasn't in a mood for persistent little cats, especially those that were in cahoots with one particular demon. Yes, because as if it wasn't enough that Mephisto was constantly persuading him into believing that he's being a brocon, then there was Kuro – who could pull his leg in a most innocent way possible and it never ended good.

"Why everything I do must be related to Yukio? Can't a man shed a tear in peace?!"

"_Rin! Everything you do is about Yukio!_" argued back black cat, his tails flipping back-and-forth. "_I think that master Mephisto is right, you need to kiss Yukio so he will wake up!_"

"Wh-whAT?!"

Two steps back and Rin almost assimilated with fridge. He was sweating profoundly, his cheeks getting flushed, and he couldn't bear to hear about _that_ again! It was as if Mephisto send Kuro to keep a tab on him without his constant prying.

"KURO!" he bit off, his hands balled. It was enough of messing around as it was, he had enough. "We talked about it before! I won't do it, it's not right!"

Kuro only meowed back in confusion. "_But why Rin? Don't you want Yukio to wake up? Master Mephisto said that if you kissed him, then he would wake!_"

Rin shook his head angrily but then remembered he couldn't be angry at his own cat, it wasn't Kuro's fault that Mephisto was feeding them all crap entire time. So thinking things trough, he inhaled-and-exhaled and actually managed to pout, he was being too fed-up with everything.

He brushed his hair loosely and looked at his familiar. "Mephisto was telling you an old fairytale, Kuro. In real world things like that doesn't work..." he remarked and almost bit on his tongue when Kuro piped in with an innocent, "_But if it worked you'd do it, don't you Rin?_"

Trying to end that topic once and for all, he only grumbled inaudibly in reply, turning his back on cat and opened fridge.

"Say Kuro, do you want tuna? I think I have some leftovers..."

Yep, talk about smooth change of topics.

* * *

As the time flew, Rin started to prepare _misoshiru_ for dinner with Ukobach's help. When he was deeply concentrated over perfecting his dish, unbeknownst to him two floors above, Yukio started to squirm in his bed.

Younger Okumura had his eyes closed tightly and his mouth was twisted as if in pain but in reality it were his latest memories he owned that finally kept coming back to him. After another painful memory hit the spot in his soul, his palms twisted the sheet between fingers.

Rin leaned over the pot with his soup and smiled, sniffing. The smell was perfect, taste wasn't any worse. It looked that his dinner was almost ready to go, he just needed last few sips to be sure. He reached with a spoon towards the pot when a thought crossed his mind, or rather a faint reminder of a pain he felt two days ago.

With a soup on a spoon, he stopped. Blinking hazily, he moved his left hand – all of his fingers – but when it came to his pinky, he found himself frozen to the spot. He felt it, the same reaction he had before, when Yukio burst out his prison. And now, off all times it came back.

The tug, around his little finger.

"RIIIIIIIIIIIN!"

Like a far away echo, he almost believed he heard Yukio screaming his name. Eyes open wide, mouth agape, the tug came back and it wanted him to go, right now.

"Ukobach, take over" he said, looking over his shoulder and stepping from the pot. The cook demon instantly jumped into preparing the soup but cat sith also jumped.

"_Rin, where are you going?_" Kuro asked, curiously. It wasn't like Rin to step from the oven.

Rin – kind of crookedly – smiled at his familiar. "Ah, I need go to the toilet. I'll be right back, keep an eye on Ukobach so he won't add any more _niboshi_, okay?"

Kuro nodded in acknowledgement. "_Okay_."

With that Rin left the kitchen and slowly made his way towards his room, the same room where Yukio slept for the past two days. When he was walking he suddenly remembered the tug. It was exactly like the times when he'd walk next to Mephisto, he felt it but it was so far away and he couldn't really grasp it. And now was the same, deeply down there he knew it existed but didn't think about it, because it was a thing so fleeting he never really could try to fully grasp it.

And then there was the time when he felt it, really felt it for what it was. The tug – no, not tug per see, more like emotions, all kind of emotions – was painful, but there was also strange note of pleasure underneath it – adrenalin rush, almost intoxication from nibbling on it – because it was all he managed to do right then.

Two days ago, the rush of this strange mix of pleasure and pain was too sudden for him to do anything but act almost desperately and go with the flow. The dame between him and Yukio was wide open, it was the most scaring but alas interesting thing that ever happened. All in all the fact stand that Rin managed to sample what was beyond the edge, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to feel it again.

Now, as he rounded around corner – he found that his ears picked upon a sound he thought he'd never hear again. Because it clearly sounded like a Yukio to him, and he was going through his closet... and desk... and wardrobe... and...

"RIIIIN!"

Blinking dumbly, he shuddered. Yukio was probably positively livid! Suddenly a thought about visiting him didn't look too promising. However, he _promised_ himself that he'll act as he should and so he stepped ahead to have a nice face-to-face talk with Yukio.

Each step felt as his heart tried to jump from his chest and his sweaty hands too didn't help the matter. When he halted before doors however, shuffling inside stopped, it was just Yukio waiting for him to barge in.

With a sigh he pressed the doorknob and walked into a war-zone.

His jaw crumbled to the floor and his eyes practically out-socketed itself from the situation he found before him. Well, as it happened the room looked as if at least one tornado went over and knocked everything outta it's place. But beside sheets, clothes, pens, notebooks and mangas that were scattered over entire place stood Yukio – his back stiff, but tense as hell.

And he was leaning over his desk or rather - as Rin spotted with a silent inner scream - his non-existent secret glasses stash.

Well, fuck. He was a dead man walking.

Tense seconds passed and neither of them even moved an inch, Rin too terrified of Yukio's wrath and Yukio... Well he started to shake, slowly.

"If this is some kind of a joke, it's not funny." Yukio was first to finally crush the silence, straightening and sighing. Then he turned around and looked in a place - he believed - stood Rin. "I might not understand why you keep on touching my glasses, nii-san. You know I..."

He paused and his eyes scrambled over the room, shivers were gone but something akin to fear showed upon his cheek. Standing still, Rin finally darted inside the war-zone and smiled - cheering inwardly. His eyes took in all length of his brother and he was happy to know he's actually okay. It was over, his worrying was over.

"Yukio."

Younger Okumura once again looked in a place were supposedly was Rin, however seeing as he wasn't moving a muscle he couldn't do anything more than growl. "It is not funny. I wake up to no glasses, no books, not even one single school uniform. What the hell is going on?"

At that Rin squirmed a bit, but just a bit. "I'm sorry Yukio, I'll explain everything... Just give me a minute!"

Yukio sighed and brushed his sore eyes, he really needed his glasses and asap. Not only he was blind but his eyes were itching already. However knowing Rin, he probably put them somewhere and forgot where. "Nii-san-" he started but didn't really know what to say so he stopped himself. "Just hurry" he agreed woefully, sliding his feet over the floor to not step on something funny and split open his head. When he sat on a bed, he followed with his eyes Rin but couldn't see much.

Older Okumura hurried around the room, basically sweeping with his feet whatever was on the floor so his brother wouldn't accidentally kill himself. On his mind was the only one thing right now, the thing Yukio needed and the one thing he actually kept.

When Yukio died and he had his small life crisis he _did_ throw everything out. Well all but _one thing_, that stupid pair of glasses they broke almost two years before. Of course Yukio wouldn't keep them and actually threw them away but he sneaked them over and kept them. It was such ironic thing that he'd give them back to him after everything they went through.

Yes, that pair of glasses was special. It held heart, memories of his brother when Yukio was gone but now the time has come for it's owner to have them back.

Smoothly, with a hard grip Rin took the box down and opened it. Inside rested glasses, repaired and ready to use. Not thinking twice he swept them over and stepped to his brother - who was watching him closely. Leaning slowly he put the glasses over Yukio's nose, looking expectantly at the other. Yukio on the other hand finally felt uneasiness wear off when his vision cleared and he could see Rin's face, up close. Almost instantly he pushed the glasses upwards.

"How is it?" asked Rin, leaning back and watching Yukio when he glanced around their room.

"Uh... It's fine..." he answered, taking in a disaster he made. He pushed his glasses once more and this time he wanted answers. "So, I'm listening."

Exhaling deeply, Rin steeled himself upon fast incoming surge of latest memories. "All right, I believe I owe you an explanation..." he stated, slouching on his own bed. He felt Yukio's imploring eyes on his face but he couldn't really look at him. Somehow all his courage and happiness shattered, right now. "Ask then" he deadpanned, his hands balled together. He figured it's going to be easier for both of them if Yukio would ask.

Yukio didn't waste a second. "What happened to all my stuff? My books, my uniforms, my glasses... Nothing is here, why?"

He smiled crookedly, trying to laugh the question off but upon seeing Yukio's unholy glare, he stopped. "Well... I threw it away-"

"Why?"

Well, there was going nothing. It was the exact question he didn't want to answer but needed anyway. So with a hollow face, he stared back into Yukio's eyes. "Because you were dead."


	8. Arc2 To return ch2

**Title**: Hellspawn  
**Chapter**: 8/?  
**Characters**: Rin, Yukio, Mephisto,  
**Genre**: Fluff, some-angst, (insert genre here)  
**Summary**: "_It took Rin over sixty seconds to collect his jaw from the floor and less than fifteen for Mephisto to laugh._"  
**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.  
**Warnings**: _No beta'd, etc. cursing, anime!ver, brocon, start RinYuki._

**A/N**: _Time jump / aka a week later or so! Also a shitty chappie is shitty. We have some Rin/Yukio moment but there is also Mephisto who enjoys it more than boys do! LOL! More goodness to come (hopefully). ps1. tea is a lie! ps2. Can we talk about how Yukio's in the dark and has no idea what's going on between Rin/Mephi xD Ja nee! ENJOY  
_

* * *

To-day was supposed to be such a great day, oh that it was and Okumura Rin was more than hyped when it finally came to be. Yet after preparations were done with Mephisto showed up and needed to break that beautiful illusion of peacefulness with his overwhelming persona. Yes, that was that. It was all Mephisto's fault, nobody else's.

Unfortunately (for Rin) the fact stands that he actually agreed with Mephisto upon to-day's events.

Not that he was prepared for pure moe Yukatas that were provided for him and Yukio to wear but he should be more than wary of Mephisto's fashion tastes. Unfortunately seeing as he and Yukio were both staring warily at their clothes he could only gulp fearfully and glance from a corner of his eyes at his twin that stood not that far away from him with his own Yukata clutched in hands, keeping it at bay as if it could accidentally round onto him and kill him.

The style-less kimonos were horrible.

"There's no way I'm wearing it" he concluded, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "It's completely tasteless, and even worse it's PINK."

Yukio took a moment to sigh then turned towards him with a blank face. His Yukata wasn't as bad as his was, being brown and beige. Still, strange moe anime characters that were embroidered into it somehow looked way too misplaced. "I told you about it before, nii-san" he finally spoke, his calm voice strong as ever. "We could've waited for our next birthday. It's not that much of a loss for me to miss one birthday."

Even though Yukio's reasoning was right, he couldn't help but to disagree. Now fully rounding at his twin, he smiled devilishly because he had his own reasons too. "Maybe you're right, don't get me wrong here Yukio but I couldn't miss such occasion to get my baking skills to use." Of course Yukio opened his mouth to respond but he cut him off first. "Yeah I know I've baked a cake before – for Izumo – but today is special. Listen, I've spend our last birthday alone in here and I'll die first before I'll not celebrate your showing up, healthy and snarky as ever."

At that Yukio pushed his glassed upwards. "I'm not snarky. Snarky isn't even a word."

He laughed at his twin's response. "Yeah, f'course" he countered, once again looking at his own Yukata and this time pouting. "Some days I _know_ he loves to see me squirming with discomfort" he added, sighing and mentally preparing himself to wear it. Just as he moved towards his wardrobe he felt a tug and stopped, looking quizzically over his shoulder.

Yukio stood steadily and shook his head at him, pulling pink material over.

"Huh?" he blinked, puzzled over his twins motions. "What are ya doing, four-eyes?" he asked but as a answer he got another tug on his kimono. "What—Yukio?"

Yukio sighed sheepishly, as if slightly embarrassed about something. "If you don't want to wear it that much, then we're doing to swap" he said slowly but when his eyes dragged over pink material he actually shivered in discomfort. "It's the least thing I can do for you... After everything that happened."

He blinked and then huge grin spread over his features. "You're sure about this?"

Yukio nodded but winced when Rin practically showed his pink Yukata into his outstretched hands and tore the other away.

"Thanks bro" said Rin, smiling happily. His tail kept on sweeping the floor nonchalantly. However when he looked over Yukio, evil twinkle shone in his eye. "I cannot wait the look on his stupid face when he realises that you're the one wearing it."

At that Yukio sweatdropped a little. He visibly twitched but was smiling nonetheless. "A-are you saying that you're using me to get back at Pheles-san, nii-san?"

This time Rin's dark chuckle filled the small room they shared. "Always, dear brother of mine, always."

* * *

"D-do we really need to watch this?" mumbled Rin, squirming on his knees.

"It was your idea to even start with" mumbled back Yukio, who unlike himself sat calmly, his back straight, knees unwavering.

"It's fucking terrible..." he said, squirmed some more in place and found out that blood circulation from his lower body was practically cut off, upon that he almost cried.

"Stop, nii-san, ceremony is not over yet" finally snapped under breath Yukio, opening one eye and glaring at his older sibling.

Rin on the other hand didn't give a shit about tea ceremony which was presently done by Mephisto himself in concentration. "He never spoke a word about fricken' tea ceremony, that bastard."

Yukio upon hearing that closed his eye and sighed tiredly. "Really now, I don't think it was Pheles-san that would actually bring the idea of my omissed birthday up."

"Oh really? Well, surprise, spotty four-eyes! It was his idea, if not for him we wouldn't be sitting here and waiting for our lower bodies to fall off."

Yukio snapped open his eyes and glared at his brother, who squirmed even more on his knees. He clearly wasn't comfortable and if not for seriousness of tea ceremony it'd be funny. But it wasn't, not now. However the more Yukio stared at his brother the more he could say that he was on the edge, literally. Give or take few more minutes and Rin would burst like a balloon.

Just as Rin couldn't hold his discomfort in any more, Mephisto finished the ceremony and with a bright smile on his face turned towards twins. Looking over them, he seemed very pleased of the reason only he knew about. In a one smooth move he poured tea into cups and leaned in some.

"It's so good to see you boys all well!" he said cheerfully, noticing twitching tail of Rin's. "I also feel honoured to be a part of this unorthodox '_welcome back_' party!"

Yukio nodded pleasantly. "Thank you, Pheles-san. However like I said before, you didn't have to organize anything really. I'm greatly pleased that you did but next time I'd appreciate it if you'd not prepare anything of sorts. I'm not much of a party person."

Mephisto shrugged the comment off with a wave of his hand. "Of course, Okumura-sensei is humble as always" he said, bringing forth two cups of tea. When neither of twins moved though, he let them rest before kneeling boys. "I'm happy to see everything went back to normal" he added, looking over both boys. Well, they seemed fine, as if nothing happened in the first place.

In that moment Rin snapped, his legs were numb enough already and he clearly didn't need any more of Mephisto's speeches. "Can we start already? I've lost feeling in my legs ages ago, clown!"

With a smirk, Mephisto only chuckled. "I'm sorry for trying to have a heart-warming tea ceremony for my guests."

The comment seemed to touch a nerve as Rin – stupidly – tried to stand up, only to falter a second later. "We're not your guests, stupid fluff-clown. It's our place, isn't iiiiitt-WHAAAAA!"

"Nii-saaaaaan!"

In a lightly-coloured tea room a loud thump sounded as Rin bodily smacked down into floor. However his poor body coordination ended with him falling straight onto his unsuspecting twin that was sprawled on the floor underneath him.

In a second, time stood still. There was nothing that could break the silence that followed.

Nothing but, "Nii-san..."

Gulping, Rin opened his eyes which somehow closed themselves in his short flight. He however wasn't sure if it was good idea to do so, mainly because his eyes ended looking at part of Yukio's neck. At first their situation wasn't that bad, but when he subconsciously travelled with his irises down that neck and trailer lower over now unobstructed parts of fine looking chest he knew everything went downwards.

Literally.

"You're... heavy..."

Winded words spilling of Yukio's lips unfortunately weren't enough to break him from his dazzled mind. The milky white chest rose up and down steadily with each breath, a very specific smell seemed to be oozing from his twins body as well, and Rin in the end didn't know what made him do what he did. Because in his fogged state of mind, he felt himself slowly raise above his twin but only as much as to see his face.

His way too-cute face with glasses askew and flushed cheeks.

"Can... you? Move..?"

Yukio was speaking, his lips moving but he haven't heard a word he said. It was as if entire world went on mute for him. The strangest fact was that he actually saw a tiny red string attached to his pinky finger of his left palm which right now – held one of Yukio's wrists pinned to the floor. Glancing closer over it he trailed the red string where it met with Yukio's own palm, where it rested around his small finger. The thread that was between them seemed so fragile and thin as if it was meant to break any time now. Before he could think more about it, his senses were once again bombarded with the strange scent his brother was emanating and he almost lost himself in it.

It was addicting, intoxicating, _perfect_. Adding to it a warm body that lied underneath him, he found his mouth watering at simple – completely wicked – thought of maybe licking the visible skin he kept staring at.

Just as that thought ended so did the strange charm Yukio put him under and he found out that his brother's face was way too close for his comfort. He never even had a chance to stop Mephisto from snapping a photo with a bold chuckle.

"Okumura-kun I think you might be crushing (on) your brother."

Only when he remembered Mephisto, Rin's self-awareness kicked in and he practically jumped off his twin, that still lied on the floor – also seemingly dazed. Not waiting a second he turned at Mephisto.

"What are you thinking you're doing?" he snapped, his face reddening in a extremely-fast pace. "Delete it!"

But Mephisto had other ideas though, as he rounded back onto cherry-faced Okumura. "No, it's a memory now. I think I will keep it safe and sound."

Shivering with anger, Rin knew all too well of that safe-keeping crap. "Bullshit."

"Now, now" Mephisto chuckled and then narrowed his slanted eyes. "You can get a copy if you want. And I believe you'd be more than happy to have it..."

Rin growled, his fists going white when Yukio cut into the fight. "Nii-san please, it's nothing – just a stupid photo. So could you kindly calm down and sit?" Upon catching Rin's eyes he sighed, sitting himself and adjusting his Yukata – which somehow slipped from his shoulder. "It's all fine. I don't mind. It wouldn't be the first photo like that..."

At that Rin stared at his brother, his mind mulling over the commentary. "What- what do you mean, four-eyes?"

It was again Yukio's time to cough into his hand and hide under his glasses. "I think Pheles-san might have a few photographs of me in a- very compromising situations. So as I said it's nothing I haven't met with before."

It took Rin over sixty seconds to collect his jaw from the floor and less than fifteen for Mephisto to laugh.

"Why- you never said anything about this pervert?!" roared Rin towards his brother. He was livid. "How long-"

"Nii-san" barked back Yukio, pushing his glasses up. "Can we actually get to the point of this small tête-a-tête? I believe we wasted a lot of Pheles-san's free time already."

There wasn't arguing about that point and so Rin agreed, still red-faced and fuming. "All right. I'm going to bring the cake..."

As the words slipped his lips, he moved towards doors but was harshly interrupted by Mephisto who was in a very good mood.

"Ne, Rin-kun, I'll get it" he said and with his magical umbrella puffed the cake into the room. Both twins upon that blinked, amazed. "Okay then boys, now that all pleasantries were exchanged I think we can actually get to the point" he added, his face still smirking but eyes following closely after Rin.

"Finally!" groaned Rin, going back on his place and slumping comfortably. "I knew there must've been a point in all of this!"

At that Mephisto chuckled again. "Of course there is. So... Okumura-sensei, how are you feeling?" he asked, staring sombrely at youngest Okumura.

Yukio seemed to be crestfallen at such question but answered nonetheless. "I'm fine."

"Are you, really?" prodded Mephisto, his eyes wandering over twin. "I believe you misunderstood my question here. I am not asking about your health but about the demon that's hiding within..."

That piqued Rin's interest as well, as he listened closely what his twin had to say. He reached for a slice of the cake and bit into it, melting at the taste.

"What do you want me to say, Pheles-san?" answered after awhile Yukio, his shoulders tense. "All my life I was taught to destroy demons and now... now I am a demon myself."

Mephisto nodded. "I understand that you're in a very unorthodox situation. However, to provide safety for all of us, demons and humans alike, I need you to accept the fact that you're one of us now." Yukio's face leaned down, into hiding. "The main reason why I'm telling you that is because of the latest events that almost put an end to the entire Assiah. I believe you'll understand, what I choose to do."

Upon those words Yukio's face popped up and Rin stopped munching his cake with a spoon in his mouth.

"Both of you still need to learn a lot about being half-demons and what it means to be one..." before Yukio could cut in with his five cents, he silenced him with a friendly glare. "Please, don't tell me that you've read it all about in books, learned in school, because believe me – you didn't. It's completely different when you're demon than what they all teach you."

"Yea, but isn't it _yours_ Academy that teaches us the _wrong_ stuff then?" piped in Rin, once again munching his cake.

"Higher politics are pulling the strings. Now, getting back on track. As Okumura-sensei is officially dead to the world I will be able to grant him some _off_ time if you want to call it that, to learn to accept and use his demonic side. No, this is a must, Okumura-sensei, we cannot let a situation like the one over _Blue Lake_ happen again" he paused and then smirked devilishly. "That's why I came to this" he said and stretched his arms around in a welcoming motion. "This is your mission, Okumura-sensei. I want you to accept the fact that you're a demon, I want you to learn to use that side of yours, I want you to listen to new Okumura-sensei" he concluded, pointing towards Rin – who froze with a spoon mid-air and blinked at them. "For next couple months, Rin-kun is going to teach you how to tap into your demonic side without too-strong after-effects which also will be a good trial for him."

"Pheles-san..." broke in Yukio, who was sweatdropping heavily by now. "I don't think it's a good idea..."

"Nonsense!" barked Mephisto, laughing. "From today on, I'll put this building into different dimension, where you'll be freely able to learn – without worrying about hurting anyone but yourselves. I'll even make sub-dimension on the first floor, so it'd imitate open world where you'll be able to do whatever you'll want to. Maybe even burn with blue fire..."

Rin, who finished his third piece of cake, sighed and then lazily reached for a tea – which was few notches colder than it should and grimaced when bitter taste met his senses. "So basically you want to close us both together in here for god-knows-how-long for training." Mephisto nodded and then smirked when he noticed that Yukio tasted his own cup of tea. "How are we gonna get food then?"

At that Mephisto barked with laughter. From all the questions he could ask, he asked this one. "Ukobach will keep a tab on the fridge as he can go to and thru dimensions easily."

Rin nodded, somehow sleepily. "All right. I can do that, I can help Yukio."

"Nii-san..." he mumbled back, glancing at him. "Do you even have any idea how to teach anyone?"

Upon that Rin laughed and leaned down, lying on the floor. His blue eyes however slid over to the place his twin was sitting, in a pink Yukata. "No."

"I thought so..." sighed Yukio, his fingers caressing bridge of his nose. "Then, to conclude today" he started, glancing at Mephisto – who was very interested in Rin's lying form. "Me and nii-san are going to be held prisoners in this building for... how long?"

"As long as it's possible" answered immediately Mephisto. "However I think we'll have close the gap at two months, as Rin-kun needs to get back into his last school year."

At that Rin actually jumped, remembering something. "Good point, clown. What do I tell everybody when I'll be gone for two months?"

Mephisto shrugged it off. "It's been taken care off already. You're gone to private exorcist training camp."

"Huh?" Rin blinked and then growled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that you're one of the best future exorcists and you wanted to get even better."

"Yukio? Does something like that even exists?"

Yukio frowned and then shook his head. "Not that I am aware off."

"Well, yes, whatever boys. It's been taken care off and that's it" concluded Mephisto, looking over both twins. His smirk went even wider when he realised that they actually swapped their Yukatas. "Okumura-sensei, I've never really thought you're the type that likes pink."

Yukio's nose went slightly pink but he cleared his throat. "Well... No, I don't like pink. Not really."

"You look positively moe in it though!"

At that Yukio's eyebrow twitched nervously. "Uh, thank you I suppose?"

"Hey, clown! Where did ya get this ugly-ass Yukatas anyway?" piped in Rin, smirking in silent victory.

Mephisto however only chuckled. "It's a good thing that you're wearing the same size now, isn't it?"

Rin's smile faltered faster than light. "What's that supposed to mean?!" he barked, baring his teeth.

"Only tiny fact that you're the same height that your brother is. It's been a long, long time since you seen eye-to-eye with him, no?"

"ARGH!"

"But don't worry, once the lost year catches up to him, you'll need ladder again."


	9. Arc2 To return ch3

**Title**: Hellspawn  
**Chapter**: 9/?  
**Characters**: Rin, Yukio,  
**Genre**: Fluff, some-angst, (insert genre here)  
**Summary**: "_Not that the day after found both of them sprawled next to each other under kotatsu, half-disrobed but he didn't really know how did that happen._"  
**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.  
**Warnings**: _No beta'd, etc. cursing, anime!ver, brocon, start RinYuki._

**A/N**: _Ohayo! I'm still alive and kickin'. I just got into different fandoms that's all (*shakes fist* damn you tumblr). So guys have a short, low-quality, **but** sweet chapter with Rin & Yukio. I want to thank all my readers and reviewers! You make me want to write more, knowing that there's more Rin/Yukio shippers. Hopefully we'll see each other on the next chappie. Stay strong and kawaii, ja nee!_

* * *

"_It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."  
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince._

* * *

How did this happen? How in the never-ending world did he found yet another obsession to maul over in his thick skull, _how_? The question persisted in his mind, while he watched from a corner of his eyes his younger twin.

With a silent groan, Rin gritted his teeth in irritation as he happened to do a lot lately. Really, it was a miracle that his teeth didn't break and fall out with the consistency in which he actually repeated such action.

Well, speaking the truth only he was to blame for his tiny fascination because if not of his -_own_!- genius idea, he wouldn't ever had such problem in the first place. Yet he had and quite interesting one at that. Because no matter where Yukio made his appearance, his eyes automatically followed him – his every move and _swept of his long brown tail_ which was very much alike his but at the same time so different.

Gulping noncomically, he felt a sweat on his forehead and swept it off with back of his hand. Unfortunately that didn't help him much as his irises almost instantly gazed back at his silently sitting twin; who's been leaning over borrowed school notes.

Yukio's posture didn't change much in the past few days -_not even a week yet_- and he still looked like some sandwich would do him good, but after their "_great"_ tea ceremony with Mephisto he finally gathered all the courage he had and stepped up to the game as Okumura-sensei.

Not that the day after found both of them sprawled next to each other under _kotatsu_, half-disrobed but he didn't really know how did that happen. It was probably Mephisto's stupid idea to screw with them to entertain himself, that sick moe-bastard.

Ekhm.

Going back to the topic at hand, the day after – when both of them came to their senses and Yukio even dared to slightly blush (which was _very_ rare) over their sleeping arrangement – he figured it was his chance to show Yukio that he is the older brother and that he _is_ capable of taking care of another person.

However even now he could clearly see in his mind's eye Yukio's sceptic facial expression when he faced him with his first exercise in his demons training which was – as he figured, baby steps were the best for Yukio – showing his weakness, his tail.

And so in the end, after long half-assed explanation and Yukio's helpless shake of head, he acknowledged his first exercise with a mournful quirk of his lips. So, after all that – he was now caught up with this new fascination of his which was observing Yukio and his long tail. Unlike his own tail, that kept on swaying and swashing and curling and doing things over and over again – which he didn't intend to do, _mostly_ – Yukio's was representing the complete opposite, and that's what he found the most interesting in it.

Briefly he thought about scrambling from his place and pulling on his twins tail but he resigned from that idea upon realising the consequences of those actions he'd need to bare with afterwards.

Still, it didn't simmer an ounce of the fire that he was burning with in _curiosity_ towards his brother's tail. That's how he found himself lying back-on-bed, hands curled around one of his old mangas but constantly glancing at his twin's profile.

He felt so irritated that he felt like going to sleep and never getting up. At first there was his fascination with Yukio's disappearance, then his imprisoning and now... Now not only he thought (_briefly_!) that he was cute but found out that he actually managed to spot the bond they shared (_whatever bond it was_) and more often he'd catch a whiff of that strange yet hypnotizing scent which must've been oozing off Yukio every time he passed by.

All in all, his mind and body where conspiring against him, making him feel something strange – something he shouldn't even thought about feeling, not to mention he kind of relished in it – almost always following Yukio. Was he becoming overprotective? Well, shit. It'd happen one way or another, he wasn't going to lose Yukio any time soon, damned the consequences.

"How long are you going to stare at me, nii-san? You're kind of distracting me, crumbling your manga pages like that."

Rin's heart stopped for a second, before it pumped twice as fast. He was just so lost in his thoughts he didn't realise he was staring at that one precise point on Yukio's body, slightly above his behind. His ears and cheeks flared bright red, not even really knowing why and he jumped to his feet, throwing manga onto bed, his tail flailing in eights.

"H-how's your training Yukio?" he managed – or rather spluttered – trying hard to conceal his burning face, good thing that he turned his back on his twin. "Feeling good with your tail free like this, ain't?"

There was a moment of silence and then a long sigh.

"What's the purpose of this exercise again?" asked Yukio, his voice somehow agitated. Rin would bet he was scowling silently at him right now. "Because I don't really need it. I have all the control over it unlike certain person that don't."

Now that stung and Rin wasn't going to let it slip by. "It's not about control" he fumed, rounding at his sitting twin – whose tail swapped softly the ground once, twice in smooth moves. "It's about feeling, that's what I want you to learn."

Upon those words Yukio glanced back at him, his eyes slowly trailing down his persona until they stopped at his overly-moving tail. "Really."

"W-well..." he gulped, Yukio kept staring at his tail. "Yes."

"And what should I be feeling then, nii-san?"

Yukio's tail stopped still. Rin hadn't any idea what to say to that 'cause what was the real purpose of this stupid exercise. He didn't thought this through at all.

"Because I keep on coming into conclusion that you wanted me to let it free just to feed up your own curiosity. Well, I know it's difficult to think that I'd become something like... _this_, but I did. I did (~_it for you_) and there's no turning back for me. If you wanted to make sure I am a demon you could just have asked me, no reason to pulling the tails out so to speak."

In his short monologue Yukio hid face behind his glasses, only two spots staring back at Rin. He on the other hand was surprised but didn't know if in a good-meaning of that word. Yukio still seemed to have problems in accepting himself as for who he was – or rather _what_ he was and he knew that feeling all too well. Years back when it happened to him, he was alone, didn't know anybody who could help him find himself, he haven't got a mentor nor anybody who was in the same boat as he was.

Now, to the irony of the entire world - he, Okumura Rin could help his own twin in coming to peace with a thought that he's not human anymore.

Yukio must've been confused. Not really a human but not a demon either. Even though they had demonic blood in their veins, there was still that gray zone in where both of them belonged in from the day of their awakenings. Putting once again his big-brother shoes on, Rin smiled and stepped closer to his twin, then without any warning he smacked his head upside-down.

"Stop whining, Yukio" he said, keeping his voice as-professional as he could. "You grew out of it ten years ago. So yeah, we're not human _nor_ demon but we're still _us_" he added and then leaned over his brother's prone form. Yukio didn't put his head up, completely submissing to his new teacher and brother nonetheless and Rin frowned upon Yukio's reaction. That strange scent once again filled the air; smell of wood and honey as strange as it was. "We can't change what we've became but we still can choose what we want to be in the future. Nobody's going to take that from us, eh? So cheer up!" he spoke and put hands over Yukio's shoulders and only upon that motion his twin responded with finally looking upwards.

The face he had, Rin couldn't laugh but Yukio's face was twisted between furry, sadness, gratefulness and... something he never saw before, something that pierced him through. Yukio's eyes were sharp and staring at his own motionlessly, as if calculating something. Then that second was over and Yukio blinked, face turning and pushing his glasses up.

"Ne, so stop being such worrywart. What will happen, will happen" he said with a happy note to his voice. He continued to pat Yukio's shoulders and then straightened back, proudly and happily that the strange dark aura around Yukio disappeared. "Just trust me, Yukio. All will be fine in time, you'll see."

Yukio actually groaned silently and shook his head slightly. "How can you be so sure? You've seen... you've... I couldn't control him. It happened twice now, who knows what'll happen the next time he shows up. The next time I might hurt you..."

Rin frowned towards his brother's head. It was strange to look at him from above. In that moment he realised that it was really happening, he was the one that was helping and not the other way around. How the tables have turned, even if just for awhile.

"Next time..." he started and then paused, thinking something through. "Next time... You will not let him get a grip on you" he ended, smiling softly. He wanted to believe in his own words, he really did. "Don't you think that your possession might've been connected to the fact that you're not ready to accept the fact that you're a half-demon? I think it might just be it! Think about it Yukio..." he explained, suddenly feeling the rush of adrenaline about cracking one of many mysteries. "Twice. You've been possessed by him twice! The first time it happened I've been unconscious so why not take me instead?"

Now it was time for Yukio to frown. "He said I've been ready before you. It means..."

"It means nothing!" suddenly jerked in Rin, he didn't want anymore of this crap. "It means that you've been scared shitless about becoming true demon. Shura told me about the tests you've been taking before all of that shit hit the fan." Yukio's head jerked upwards, clearly shocked and even maybe slightly terrified that his secret was out in the open. "I know about it, I don't really blame you though. I'd probably do the same thing... My point is, Yukio you're not alone and you don't have to be scared of what you've became. I'm here with you, we're in the same boat."

"Nii-san..."

He smiled at his twin and mustered all his courage to ruffle Yukio's hair. "It's okay to try to fight it but in the end everything would be easier if you didn't. Don't do the same mistakes I did, I've almost let my demon side take over me more than once, I've even almost burned Shiemi."

"There's just one problem. I am not _you_."

Rin gasped taken aghast. "Of course you're not. I was just giving you an example, didn't I?" he continued, putting his hands on hips, stern look over his face. Yukio on the other hand tried to calm his wild hair but after few tries stopped and pushed his glasses up instead. "You wanted an explanation why I want you to walk around with your tail out and so there is my answer; I want you to show your emotions through it Yukio, it might help in uniting the human and demon that's inside you."

Yukio harrumphed under his nose and his eyebrow twitched. Was he being nervous now of the all times? "In truth, I don't- I don't know how?"

"Huh?" Rin blinked, dumbfounded. "What do you mean? Just let it do whatever it wants, look at me!" he added and motioned towards his tail which -_to their surprise_- was nowhere to be seen. Only after closer look they realised that Rin's tail somehow waved it's way with Yukio's brown one. There was a long, stretching minute of a pregnant silence after that discovery and two pairs of eyes staring at the strange motions both tails seemed to be doing. "Umm, I didn't even know..."

"Well" Yukio coughed into his fist, breaking the charm of their intertwined tails. "There goes your first lesson, Okumura-sensei."

Rin fumed inwardly, no matter what Yukio always could shoot him down. "That's good, at least your tail is doing _something_, baby steps."

"I am _not_ a baby you need to take care of, nii-san" retaliated instantly Yukio, his glasses flashing but he turned back to the school notes nonetheless. "I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can" snipped in an answer Rin, and then smiled devilishly towards his twin. He had a perfect excuse to use his secret weapon and without thinking he leaned over and grabbed brown appendage. As expected, after crushing it between his fingers, Yukio jumped from his chair and he believed he stayed in mid-air for a few seconds as well.

"What was that for?!" growled angrily Yukio, turning at Rin with tears in the corners of his eyes. The tail slipping from between Rin's fingers, now swashing behind him and even twitching at the end.

Rin pointed towards it with a stupid smile on his face. "Look Yukio, it worked!"

His twin's face darkened, glasses flashed. "And what was that supposed to do?"

Rin didn't even think about stopping smiling. "Your tail, four-eyes."

Yukio with his eyebrow still twitching glanced at his tail and there was a clear surprise on his face. His tail kept on swaying and twitching like some kind of serpent. It never did that before. "My tail?"

Rin laughed out loud then. "It was just a test if your tail is as sensitive as mine is. Guess I was right."

Upon that Yukio sighed and willed his tail to fall into his open hand. He stroked it and then let it fall back. "Well, it's obvious, nii-san. Every animal's tail is sensitive, and like you said we're not human anymore so it's natural that when one grabs your tail it _hurts_."

Rin's smile morphed into devious smirk, his eyes shone. "Now you know how I felt all those times you pulled on mine, four-eyes. It didn't _tickle_ at all."

Yukio blenched some when realisation hit him in the face. "Nii-san, I- I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Rin however shrugged it off with a wave of his hand. "Yeah, 'fcourse not, how could you know. Well, it's all water under a bridge. Just don't pull on my tail again."

At that Yukio only sighed and then scratched his chin. "Then how I'll be able to make you listen to me?"

"Well... Say something for once?" Rin replied with a snark. "Just say 'hey, wait, I need you to listen to me'? It couldn't be that hard."

"It wouldn't if you'd actually listen."

Rin frowned and then once again shrugged the comment off. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to make a dinner, have something on mind?" he said as he started towards the doors.

"What do you think about some Hayashi rice?"

He stopped with a hand on the handle and glanced back at his twin. Smirk slowly once again slipped on his face. "Western cuisine, hm? Can do" he said after all and pressed the handle. "I'll send Kuro when it will be ready" he threw over his shoulder when he stepped out and doors silently clicked into place.


	10. Arc2 To return ch4

**Title**: Hellspawn  
**Chapter**: 10/?  
**Characters**: Rin, Yukio, Shura  
**Genre**: Fluff, some-angst, BADASSERY (insert genre here)  
**Summary**: "Oh how he wanted to see her fall under his own blade, only to keep her away from his twin."  
**Disclaimer**: I own nothing, it's purely fan made for fun... or tears.  
**Warnings**: _No beta'd, etc. cursing, anime!ver, brocon, start RinYuki. prolly ooc?_

**A/N**: _I AM FUCKING BACK ON TRACK GUYS. OMG, OMG this is so fricken' long (5k bitch!) and so quick! But I'm really proud of this chapter! Also guys we're getting to RinxYukio goodness with huge steps now! BEWARE OF THE BADASSERY and __**read&review**__! __**Tell me what you loved, tell me what you hated, bring teh fire!**_

* * *

It was a silent day, in whom nothing really happened, _yet_. From the time Rin opened his eyes, he knew it wasn't going to be any different than the few last ones. It was too quiet and peaceful, a brewing storm probably strolling towards them with a power of a thousand suns but even so – as the peaceful days always came to end – he wouldn't really mind. To be completely honest with himself, he was getting bored with his teacher-stuff, not really knowing how to reach around it and grab it fully as for what it was.

He blinked lazily his wide, blue eyes and sighed towards the window. The weather outside was nice, sun shone and there were only couple clouds slowly making it's way through sky. He longed to get out from this copped up place, he wanted to visit his friends but moreover he wanted Yukio to make that even the smallest step in his exercises.

Now, while he sat copped up within their _kotatsu_, he wondered if Yukio made any progress at all in understanding and uniting the beast that rested in him. With a quick glance towards his brother's form – now slouched lightly over three candles that sat quietly before him – he sighed again. Of course, he couldn't stop at letting Yukio only walk around with his tail out as that could and probably _would_ be counter-productive as to what was their goal and so he figured '_the candles_' would be perfect for his twin just as they were for him.

It didn't change the fact that Yukio couldn't light any of them, not even _all_ of them.

It looked like his brother was lacking that spark that he had to make it work. Still even if he realised it or not, he complied and did exactly how he was told to do, like right now. One didn't have to be a seer to see that his twin was frustrated to no end upon not reaching his goal in lighting up that one, middle candle.

How could Rin tell that though as for complete stranger Yukio'd look like a perfect picture of solid, undeterred calmness? Well, he needed to thank his twin's tail for that. The brown appendage his brother had currently swayed from side to side but he knew it was a matter of time before it'd finally curl in itself and shoot out, letting out a clear frustration his brother was feeling.

And so as the minutes passed between them, nothing happened.

Rin was at a point of almost dozing off with the tardiness of the pace in which time seemed to flow. Suddenly a thought struck him, that it must've been one of side-effects in being closed up in a pocket dimension for so long because wasn't it been almost two weeks now? To think that half of his free-from-school time was over only made him pout and slouch lazily over their _kotatsu_ more.

With his chin leaning on table he sighed – loudly this time.

The relations he had with Yukio... they didn't change at all. Now that was frustrating him to no end. A month ago he believed that when his twin would finally wake up they'd be more... _open_ to each other. Unfortunately there still was that lack of honesty between them and it hurt him, even if it wasn't the worst pain he felt in his life. He wouldn't mind though if Yukio actually came to him – _from his own will_ – and talked about what's bothering him. It was tiresome to always be on edge and figure what's going on around his brother's head, everything would be easier if he just trusted him enough.

But it wasn't going to be the case prolly until their deaths.

Because some things couldn't be changed, like him feeling irritation at Yukio's cold shoulder and that stupid, indifferent tone he was using while talking with him. God, their relationship didn't change at all, it reverted to the state it was from before his twin lost all the control at Blue Lake.

And Rin wasn't happy about it, at all.

A very quiet rustle piqued Rin's interest and soon enough, he couldn't help but smirk towards Yukio. He was finally irked enough to move and touch bridge of his nose, hair falling around his forehead in shame. With another swept of his – now lightly twitching – tail he exhaled.

"Tired already?" Rin couldn't help himself, he was a supreme being once in his life and he needed to relish in it as long as he could. "You've been sitting like that for the last three hours, any luck with the candles?"

Yukio's body twitched at half-mocking comment. "I almost got it, if not for your wheezing over the past ten minutes I would do it."

"Oh really, four-eyes? Am I bothering you that much? With my breathing?"

At that his twin faced him, expression indifferent as always but there was a steel in his eyes. "You've been staring at the bloody window for an hour now, if you really want to go out – go on the first floor, room 112. I am not safe-keeping you here nor you're my prisoner. You're free to do whatever you want."

On Rin's head a tick appeared. "You're blaming me for not being able to light a shitty candle now, spotty?"

As an answer his brother closed his eyes and then make the most incredible expression Rin ever saw. Yukio actually pouted only to frown and shake his head. "I-... I didn't say that, just..."

"You just did!" barked back Rin, sleepiness quickly fading away. He stood up and strode towards his brother. But even though he really wanted to give him a smart-ass comeback he didn't. "Do you even know what you're doing?" he added, towering over his sitting sibling.

Now it was time for Yukio to actually bite-back. "Of course I know!" he snapped, glasses slipping slightly over his nose. "I've read about it in more books than you did in your entire life-"

"And that makes you a master in disguise, doesn't it?" continued Rin, his tail curling behind him. "Well, sorry Mr. I've-read-all-about-it-in-a-book but it's apparently not working!"

"It would if you took your lazy bum somewhere and actually did something productive."

"I am doing something productive right now" countered Rin with a slap of his tail over his twins face. "Move, four-eyes" he said and while Yukio fumed inwardly and moved a bit aside, Rin sat lazily before candles. Then he smiled wickedly and clasped his palms over his knees. "Watch and learn."

"This is not a way to teach, nii-san" deadpanned Yukio, watching closely Rin anyway. "First you need to teach theory _then_ you can get into practical side of the topic. That's what I've been trying to tell you for a week now but you never listened. You just put the candles before me and said 'light the middle one'."

It was a sensible response and Rin frowned momentarily. "It's not like I've had anybody to teach me this stuff, y'know. Everything I know now, I've taught myself. You're a smart guy, Yukio, so I realised that it'll take you even less time than me" he answered and then once again smirked, fangs bared. "So you want a theory, huh?" he asked and when Yukio actually nodded he continued, his eyes on the candles. "First things first, emotions. Second, control. Third, usage."

His twin blinked, clearly not understanding the meaning of his teachings, and so he was forced to continue his thought. "That are the stages I'm going through to maintain both demon and human at equal measurements. There's one thing I've learned and that is that you can have both at the same time. So... demon – emotions, human – control, half-breed – usage."

And with those words, he concentrated on a middle candle. It took him few seconds to breach that border between his Assiah body and Gehenna's soul. Then once again he was reminded of the bond they shared – as every time he stepped beyond that border he figured – he was able to see things on a Gehenna's plane. Not really trying to figure out what that tiny red thread actually meant, he materialised his power on the top of a middle candle and it soon shone with a blue flame.

The middle candle flared, caressing them both with a blue hue.

"I- need to say that I'm impressed" cut through the silence Yukio. "You've come a long way since the last time... as I remember you."

That struck something in Rin, suddenly reminding him of those months full of tears, pain and anger. Gulping fearfully, he blinked the wetness from his eyes and smiled sheepishly, hiding behind his own mask. Some things shouldn't be shared. Ever. With a strong huff he put the candle out but couldn't stop himself from scratching at his head.

"Yeah, I guess. I had a lot of time for myself..." and there it was, that notch of sadness, hid under layers and layers of different emotions. Thinking that his role as a mentor has ended, Rin patted his sweaty palms on trousers and slowly stood up. "Like I said, emotions, humanity, usage. Emotions give you the strength and power, you'll feel it in your body like one side of a border; on the other will be your humanity, reason and control; and you need to cross that border and while you'll be at it, you'll manage to light the exact candle you wish. For now though I guess, you should try to light any of them, okay?"

Straightening his aching back, Rin moaned and then put hands behind his head. "Well, I'll leave it to you then" he said, glancing back at his twin who kept his eyes on the candles – probably still mulling over his lesson – and smiled. Then with a deep inhale he started to walk towards the exit.

Ne, he really needed to go outside.

But as he was reaching towards the handle, the door burst open and his jaw dropped to the floor. In their entryway stood no-other but Kirigakure Shura in all her skimpy-clothed glory, sword dappled over shoulder.

"If that aren't mah favourite twins" she drawled in her specific way, mouth half-smiling. "I've come to keep ya some company."

Yukio who's face went sheet-white, gulped but instantly changed it into his usual indifferent look, Rin on the other hand had his hands outstretched in a shock.

"How did you get here?" Was Rin's first question, because really, how? "I thought we're here completely alone?!"

In an answer Shura only pouted. "Ye wanna say ye didn't miss me?"

At this time, Yukio finally cut into the scene as delicately as he could. "It's nice to see you too, Shura-san."

"Ah!" Shura only now spotted a small form of Yukio, sitting on the rooms floor. "Mephisto didn't lie then, he said yer all healthy and kickin'."

"Of course he is, why wouldn't he be?" parroted Rin, suddenly aware of Shura's eyes on his brother's form. He couldn't do much as to not like it and so he stepped in-between them. His blue irises met with Shura's red ones. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"

Now, Kirigakure Shura never really turned down a good day of brawl and it just so happened that Mephisto felt like being generous enough and let her have a day off with the twins. But in all honesty she was send there only to give both of them a proper training, even if only she had a few hours for it.

"I came here to kick yer lazy asses, so get up and let's go."

With those words she turned on her heel, not checking if any of the boys followed. They as dumbfounded as they were, only looked one to another and with shrugs they actually did trail after the exorcist.

They were going through well known corridors but only realised where they are going when they turned around a corner. Shura was clearly directing them towards their private firing range. The hall in which it was enclosed was huge, separated into different sections – Rin briefly remembered his own '_candle_' training and what happened there. Well, he blushed over that memory.

Shura's and Yukio's backs were bared to his liking, as much as he could want but back then he was too surprised over the event to care about the details. Now however...

"Did ye have a proper training in the last few days?" Shura's voice boomed in a new room, which they crossed and stopped near the end of firing section. "'Cause you two looked like having a great honeymoon in there" she mentioned, giving them an idea that she heard their little spat. "Rin-kun must be a really good husband if yer lost ye touch."

"Wh-AT?!"

"Tche... Now yer even takin' shots fer him."

Yukio to whom previous words were aimed at, sighed calmly. "She's riling you up, nii-san. Don't let her get to you, it won't do you any good."

Rin however was too lost in the deep to speak. "What-? She just said-!"

"She was pulling our legs, ignore it."

Shura pouted. "I don't like te be ignored. Anyways who's up to some nice, long spar session?"

"So that's the reason why you came here?" asked Yukio, finally getting some answers.

"Ye, f'course why should I bother wit two of ye otherwise?" she countered, still keeping that smug look on her face. "Ye thought I missed you, scaredy-cat?"

At that Yukio's brow twitched, but he kept silent. Unfortunately for him, his tail couldn't keep much in the hiding and soon enough even Shura spotted his discomfort.

"I guess under all that yer aloofness ye still are human, eh?" she stated, smiling now openly. "Ye mind some quick rematch of our last match?" she dared Yukio and he compiled.

"Only if you're ready to lose, then yes."

Rin watched the exchange from a corner of his eyes and while he knew there wasn't anything wrong with it, he still caught himself wanting to bare his fangs at Shura and hiss. There was something in his blood, in his soul wanting something, he just didn't know what. With a half-glare he resigned from intervening though and sat down on a chair, crossed his arms and huffed in silence.

It wasn't that he wasn't interested in the rematch but he'd really enjoy it by far more if Shura wasn't present. On the other hand it was nice to have to see if his younger twin still had that trigger that made him be a perfect Dragoon.

"Ye ready, scaredy four-eyes?" Shura spoke and her voice loomed over the room. When she got a nod from Okumura-sensei that stood not far from her she smiled and laughed out loud. "Let the game begin!"

When last syllable echoed in a fire range, lights went out – literally – and everywhere they could see was darkness. Rin shivered, his eyes scanning surroundings and briefly sweatdropped upon realisation that they were going to shot targets in dark. Before he could gulp through a bile that rose in his throat, first shoots fired – sparks lighting weapon Yukio was holding.

And that was when he lost it, his mind flew outta his skull at amazing show he was seeing. Because for him it looked as if they coordinated each and every turn, twist or even slight bend of their bodies together. Sparks leaving Yukio's hand gun more than once lightened his concentrated profile, beautifully tracing every even the tiniest nook, lips, cheek, eyes... Those eyes, they got that spark in them!

It was clear that he was awed and even when light once again surrounded them, he couldn't stop his mouth from hanging open.

"Ye know" spoke Shura, shouldering her sword and looking at slouched Yukio with a bit of disappointment "Yer almost had me. It's a shame that ye get so easily tired."

Yukio who couldn't hide his own disappointment, shuddered but managed to hold in his own need to snarl at older exorcist. Brown appendage that kept on spiralling and slashing was indicating enough that he was far from happy. "Next time then" he answered, clearing his throat, his breathing ragged.

Shura agreed with a smirk of her own. "Next time, scaredy" she smiled and then turned towards the only-quiet resident of the room. "Yer ready, Rin-kun?"

Question shot Rin down, only now aware of two pairs of eyes on his person. For a second he wanted to turn down the invitation but when Shura shrugged nonchalantly and looked back towards Yukio, he snapped. He didn't want Shura to look at his twin as she was, with those lewdly parted lips and barely covered breasts.

Before he knew it, he was on his long, lanky legs. "You're on!" he shouted for both of them to hear. With Shura's half-cock of head and Yukio's surprise written all over his face, he walked over where he kept his Kurikara. With a smooth move he shoved the sheathe down and to his brother's shock of his life, he didn't burn with the blue flames.

"Nii-san?" Yukio asked, slowly getting up from ground. His mouth open a bit, he tried to say something but Shura – _fucking Shura!_ - cut it short.

Her sword's blade slashed near Yukio's stomach, to keep him in place. "Ah, yer didn't know? Well, leave it fer later, honeybirds..." she said, mockingly and finally faced Rin who's own face expression was as indifferent as Yukio's could be. "I'd say get outta way, four-eyes. It might get ugly" she mentioned from a corner of her mouth and upon seeing questioning in younger twins eyes she added. "We'd be very sorry if we'd hurt you by accident."

Now totally confused about the 180 degree change of the entire situation, Yukio actually compiled but only because of Rin. He seemed like a very different person, calm, stoic and maybe even a bit overconfident. As if the twin he grew up with disappeared and was replaced with complete stranger. It was the first time he'd see Rin like that, so serious, so... _mature_, probably even more so than he felt like.

With long strides, Shura moved to the another section of the hall, Rin following after her and Yukio trailing behind both of them. Once they got into section reserved for Knight's Shura cranked her neck little but Rin did nothing of sorts. Only his dark blue eyes moved with every motion his opponent was doing.

Yukio who was truly intrigued by the situation, sat down on a bench for trainees and waited.

Time ticked but yet none of participants moved a muscle.

"To fist blood?" asked nonchalantly Shura as if bored and then slashed her blade down in invitation.

"Or to first blister" answered back Rin, now smiling himself. Oh how he wanted to see her fall under his own blade, only to keep her away from his twin. "No holding back."

Shura 'tsked' but smirked nonetheless. "Ye think ye'll manage to win this, Rin-kun?" she asked him, knowing that something triggered his inner demon. "Well, then. Just don't ye run back cryin' to four-eyes later!" and with that she jumped from her place with sword coming first and fast towards Rin's face.

Rin on the other side smirked, one fang glistering in the lights upon Shura's attack. She could be so predictable when it came to fighting, that he barely needed any effort to try and dodge her attacks. This time however, she crossed some invisible border she shouldn't and he needed to put her back behind it, no matter what.

"Nii-san!"

Sword was coming at his head and face fast but he wasn't going to dodge it, oh no. No, not this time and only when hall's lights shone on the blade – _that was brimming with the power _– he reacted and pulled up till now limply lying Kurikara to clash steel with steel.

The pure surge of the power that Shura's sword was holding – send an enormous wave of wind, that'd knock back even the heaviest wrestler from the ring. Both of them, Shura and Rin however stayed in place – unwavering – and only stared each other in the face.

It was a clash of the titans.

Without second to loose, Rin called upon his flames and with a bit of frightening smile upon his lips, burst them around – lightening entire hall. For a second there was just blinding light but when it slowly faded away one could make out a silhouette of standing Shura, few meters from Rin. He wasn't entirely happy that she dodged his wall of fire and figured he needed something else to make her loose her balance. Something to trigger her off, but with her there was a flat chance for anything to work out.

Frowning silently, he launched himself at her, and she recuperated by doing the same. Their dance started and Rin didn't want to be the one to step on toes of his partner. No, he kept on using all of his information about Shura's techniques, as she taught some of them to him too, but no it was in the past. All he wanted to do is to win, he wanted to win Yukio.

When another gust of wind almost caught him on his cheek, he snarled and just for a second he let the beast take control over human. His bright blue eyes shone with red, flames a bit wilder and harder to keep a grip over but he didn't care. For Rin even the slightest kind of control was enough, as far as he wouldn't completely loose the sight of the goal, everything was fine.

Steel clashed with steel, wind fought with fire.

After nearly hitting Shura from the flank – and her jumping back, albeit tired now and breathing hard – he finally felt the first seeps of tiredness coming over his body too. Well, that was another thing he didn't master nor understood completely but by using his demonic powers since Kurikara's spell was broken, he could tire extremely fast (_even to the point of losing conciousness_) if used for too long. Short bursts where good but in a long shoot, he was doomed.

Seeing the situation as it was, while he kept his indifferent mask on he realised that Shura was playing for time, she somehow must've seen his weak point and wanted to use it. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't going to lose.

There was only last thing he could use against her, her own strategy.

So when a steady sweat drifted down his forehead and cheek, he calmed the beast and slowly put out the flames, reverting to the beginning. He saw a flash of opportunity in Shura's eyes and played along. She lunged at him – one, two, three slashes in mid-air – and summoned her snake familiar to strike him as well, yet he didn't do much again but dodged the hits. Only when he jumped back the snake familiar made completely new move; entwined itself around his body – trapping him – and he fell to the ground, Kurikara clashing nearby.

Shura stepped up to him and he hissed upon seeing edge of a blade. Edge that was getting closer and closer to his face until he once again called upon his flames – sizzling the snake into the dust and too-fast for a normal eye to see ran his own claws over Shura's side – ultimately winning the battle.

Shura gasped but didn't move an inch.

Rin however smiled, his strange need to show Yukio that he's the best passed by then and he was back as the good ol' Rin everybody knew.

"Ha! I got you! I won!" he chortled, his body reverting to his human form, flames gone. It was his victory and he was going to celebrate it. "Ye see?!"

Shura however didn't seem to lost her own nonchalance even more upon looking at his face she smirked wickedly, lightly caressing her own wound. "Don't be so happy yet, it's a draw."

He stopped, blinked and then growled under nose. "No it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not!"

Shura sighed and then called over her shoulder lightly. "Ne, scaredy four-eyes, it was a draw wasn't it?"

Yukio stepped back towards them and looked over both of them, sighing. "I'm afraid so."

"What?!" snapped Rin, fading fast. He felt really tired after the match. "How?! She didn't-?!"

"Apparently, she did, nii-san" answered slowly Yukio and then reached towards Rin's face.

If the time seemed to tick too slowly before then at that exact moment it simply stopped. For Rin, his twins hand moved in slow motion, touching him, his cheek and when his thumb brushed something from it, he didn't want that moment to end. But it did as Yukio took his hand back as quickly as he put it in the first place, rounding thumb at him and showing a dark red fluid that slowly drifted down it.

That touch, soft and innocent however once again woke the flames he was bearing inside, and just for a second – his eyes caught Yukio's entirely ignoring the friendly gesture he made. His breath caught in chest upon seeing the bold realisation on his brother's face but couldn't look away.

"Will te two of ye get a room or somethin'?"

That is until sudden shove made him lean forward and he saw extremely fast approaching, blushing face of his own twin. There was a clash but different kind of it, their faces met or would rather smack together if not of Rin's last second slight detour. Thanks to it, their noses were still in one pieces, Yukio's glasses slightly askew and his lips over his but it was a tiny detail.

Before he realised what was happening.

Yukio was blushing – full, rosy blush over his nose and cheeks – eyes wide open – just like he himself was. Neither of them moved, scared of what might happen if any of them actually did. That was also the exact moment when that sweet mixture of wood, honey and something fruity filled the air but it was much, much stronger this time.

After few seconds in which they stood like that petrified on the spots, Rin realised two things. First was information that Shura was still with them and probably balling her eyes out at this view the second being the fact that his open palm somehow landed around Yukio's neck while his twins stopped over his shoulder.

The situation they were in was so fucking wrong but in that one moment it felt perfect to him. If he only could move his lips a bit... God, his own twin stole his first kiss!

Before his brain could completely run through all the information, he felt that sudden heaviness that shoved him downwards was gone and he could finally move back – and he did. He practically jumped away from his twin – but it wasn't as if Yukio didn't do the same because he did. Terrible silence blossomed around both of them, and Rin used it to chance a look at Shura who – _to his fuckin' surprise_ – had her back to them and was probably totally unaware of the awkwardness of their situation.

As he stared at the back of Shura's head, his tongue darted outside to lick his lower lip. He wouldn't dare say he could actually still taste Yukio on it. Thankfully before any more awkwardness ensued, Shura boldly turned to face them but before she spoke, she frowned and took a long, good look over both of them.

Rin felt as his skin burned with embarrassment, he couldn't help a fully-faced blush that spread around his cheeks and face. He glanced at Yukio too, hoping he was looking even worse for wearing than he was and in reality... when Yukio's still wide open eyes caught him staring, he blushed cherry-tomato too.

"Now, what's wit ye two honeybirds? Need some marriage counseling?" she dropped at them but shrugged at the strange, apparently awkward glances boys were exchanging. "Whatevs, I need ta go, I hope ye won't stop yer training tho. I'd make me really sad to kick yer asses without effort" she added, turning and waving them goodbye. "See ya scrubs!"

Even though Shura left the room, the silence was too heavy for twins. Not really knowing how to react, they stood motionlessly, either looking everywhere but themselves. However Rin was first to break from his shock upon what occurred barely seconds ago. He actually was glad that Shura didn't see anything, now that would be terrifying.

He cleared his throat, suddenly dry and thirsty. "She haven't seen anything, thank god."

Yukio followed him into safe-topic of Shura's mocking. "Yes..." he cleared his throat as well. "I could only imagine what she'd call us if she saw."

Rin fumed, cheeks still red and pouted. "As if honeybirds wasn't bad enough."

Yukio agreed, nodding. "It's Shura, everybody have a nickname."

Rin casually shrugged it off, awkwardness still thick in the air. "About-"

"It was an accident" cut in sharply Yukio, then pushed his glasses up. "Shura's fault as well, as far as I can tell."

"How was that-?"

Yukio send Rin silent glare and he pouted. "She tugged on our shirts, nii-san. Rules of physics unfortunately didn't help the matter at hand and we... _crashed_."

Rin coughed, suddenly feeling light-headed. "Yea-h, we crashed. Our _faces_ crashed."

Now that comment made slight blush reappear over Yukio's nose and he crossed his arms. "Yes, crashed. We can't call that a kiss, now can we?" Rin twitched nervously, sweating. "Kiss is wanted by both sides and clearly is not just a smack of lips one over the other." Well, yeah, Yukio could believe in what he wanted, Rin still wasn't sold on that definition though. It wasn't end of it as his twin choose to continue his thought but much more subtle.

"Besides, I can't tell anyone that my first kiss was that of my nii-san" he ended with a clear air of uneasiness around him."

Well it took one to know one.

Because, unbeknown to Yukio, Rin was going to cherish this moment many, many days later with a small, broken smile upon his face. Because life was cruel and they were hellspawns, and that combination wasn't meant to be (_for very long_).

And to think that it was such a silent day, in whom everything happened at once.


End file.
